Electrophoretic mobility of a growing cell studied by photonic force microscope

Abstract

Living cells have spatially localized charged groups such as nucleus, cell walls, and others that can move in an external electric field providing the cell electrophoretic mobility (EPM). We suggest to monitor the EPM of a single living cell during its growth using optical tweezers combined with a position detector. As an example, we studied the EPM during the yeast growth, and we observed a nonmonotonic behavior of the EPM during the cell cycle, such as that the maximal EPM was observed at the initial stage of the growth, strongly reducing when the cell cycle is near its final stage.