Reversible receptor methylation is essential for normal chemotaxis of Escherichia coli in gradients of aspartic acid.

The chemotaxis of wild-type cells of Escherichia coli and double mutants lacking the methyltransferase and the methylesterase activities of the receptor modification system has been compared in spatial gradients of aspartic acid. Previous studies showing that a chemotactic response can be observed for the mutant raised questions about the role of methylation in the bacterial memory. To clarify the role of methylation, the redistribution of bacteria in stabilized defined gradients of aspartic acid was monitored by light scattering. There was no redistribution of the mutant cells in nonsaturating gradients of aspartic acid, but over the same range these mutant bacteria were observed to respond and to adapt during tethering experiments. In large saturating gradients of aspartate, slight movement of the mutant up the gradient was observed. These results show that dynamic receptor methylation is required for the chemotactic response to gentle gradients of aspartic acid and that methylation resets to zero and is part of the normal wild-type memory. There are certain gradients, however, in which the methylation-deficient mutants show chemotactic ability, thus explaining the apparent anomaly.