ELECTROMAGNETIC ACTIVITY OF YEAST CELLS IN THE M PHASE

Abstract

Electromagnetic activity around yeast mitotic cells (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) was measured in the frequency range 8–9 MHz and special care was taken to extract reliable information from the raw signals. The characteristic of cold-sensitive tubulin mutants tub2-401 and tub2-406, which come to arrest before mitosis at a restrictive temperature (14°C) and which re-enter mitosis upon a shift back to a permissive temperature (28°C), was used to prepare synchronized mitotic cells. Immunofluorescence microscopy using an antitubulin antibody was used to analyze microtubular structures. The arrested tub2-401 mutant that had back-shifted to permissive temperature displayed no microtubules and no electromagnetic activity around the cells. In contrast, the arrested cells of the mutant tub2-406 displayed developed, but aberrant, nonfunctional microtubules and a high electromagnetic activity around the cells. The electromagnetic activity around the arrested mutant tub2-401 back-shifted to permissive temperature peaks at four time points which may coincide with (i) formation of the mitotic spindle, (ii) binding of chromatids to kinetochore microtubules, (iii) elongation of the spindle in anaphase A, and (iv) elongation of the spindle in anaphase B. The profile of the electromagnetic activity around the synchronized mutant tub2-406 at permissive temperature seems to be delayed by the time required for aberrant nonfunctional microtubules to be depolymerized. Experimental results presented in this paper support Pohl's idea of existence of the electromagnetic field around yeast cells.

• M phase
• Microtubule electromagnetic activity
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae