The influence of low-frequency magnetic field regions on the Saccharomyces cerevisiae respiration and growth

Abstract

The influence of four low-frequency magnetic field (MF) ranges 10–300 Hz, 10–100 Hz, 10–50 Hz and 50–100 Hz in scanning regime (all frequencies from selected range were scanned during 100 s repetitively during 24 h) on baker's yeast cells Saccharomyces cerevisiae was examined by continuous measurements of cumulative O2 consumption and cumulative CO2 production over 24 h with Micro-Oxymax® respirometer. Besides respiration activity, measurements of cell growth and glucose uptake were performed as well. Statistical analysis indicated that, among all investigated low-frequency MF ranges, range from 10 Hz to 50 Hz had the greatest influence to yeast cell respiration and cell growth. More precisely, for this region, paired two sample one-tail t-test showed statistically significant differences in cumulative O2 consumption, cumulative CO2 production and S. cerevisiae cell number. Moreover samples exposed to MF range from 10 Hz to 50 Hz showed the same behavior in all five replicates: lower cumulative O2 consumption, higher cumulative CO2 production and higher cell number compared to control sample. This could be important from the application aspect, in industry (food, feed, brewery etc.) and biotechnology, because changes in cells metabolism are not caused by chemical treatment.