Differential Transcription of Escherichia Coli K-12 Genes Under Hypomagnetic and Geomagnetic Conditions

Abstract

The transcriptomic response of Escherichia coli to hypomagnetic versus geomagnetic exposure was examined using RNA sequencing across seven pairwise comparisons of differently conditioned cultures. Eighty-one genes were reproducibly differentially expressed, meeting significance and fold-change criteria in at least four of seven comparisons. The direction of differential expression tracked the 90-minute magnetic field exposure condition rather than the magnetic field conditions to which the seed cultures were exposed, indicating that the response is driven by acute field exposure rather than culture history. The affected genes point to a distinct metabolic state layered on top of lag phase, marked by atypical iron stress, downregulation of the flagellar regulon, and a phosphotransferase-mediated carbon-metabolism program favoring rapid energy acquisition over growth.