A new visualization chamber to study the transient volumetric response of yeast cells submitted to osmotic shifts

A visualization chamber has been developed to analyze potential correlations between osmotic step increase on yeasts and the resultant cell volume decreases. Image analysis was used to characterize the step increases in the center of the chamber and to measure the changes in the cell volume. Step increases of different intensities have been performed on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. This device has allowed the kinetics of the volumetric evolution of the cells to be observed. The water exit flow rate from the cell was found to occur in the first 10 s following the hypertonic step change. Comparison of the time constants of the chamber and of the cell volume variations allowed to conclude that the time constant of the water transfer across the membrane was short (about 1 s).