ORIENTATION AND CHARACTERISTIC MOVEMENT OF YEAST-CELLS INDUCED BY HOMOGENEOUS ELECTRIC-FIELD

A cylindrical yeast cell (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) oriented itself p arallel or perpendicular to an alternating homogeneous electric field, depending upon the applied frequency. The turnover frequency was abou t 65 MHz for the living cells in a non-electrolyte solution but about 1.5 MHz for the dead cells in an electric held. Further, the lower the cell activity due to the refrigeration effect, the lower the turnover frequency was. Similar phenomena were observed for budding yeast cell s (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Therefore, these phenomena can be used t o investigate the cell activity in the solution. We also found a secon d turnover frequency of about 15 MHz for the dead cylindrical cells. M oreover, when two Living cylindrical cells were placed in contact with each other, they exhibited characteristic movement at applied frequen cies near the first turnover frequency.