Permeabilization of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell walls using nanosecond high power electrical pulses

Abstract

The electrical field-induced changes of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells permeabilization to tetraphenylphosphonium (TPP+) ions were studied using square-shaped, nanosecond duration high power electrical pulses. It was obtained that pulses having durations ranging from 10 ns to 60 ns, and generating electric field strengths up to 190 kV/cm significantly (up to 65 times) increase the absorption rate of TPP+ ions without any detectible influence on the yeast cell viability. The modelling of the TPP+ absorption process using a second order rate equation demonstrates that depending on the duration of the pulses, yeast cell clusters of different sizes are homogeniously permeabilized. It was concluded, that nanosecond pulse-induced permeabilization can be applied to increase the operational speed of whole cell biosensors.