Imaging Living Yeast Cells and Quantifying Their Biophysical Properties by Atomic Force Microscopy

Abstract

Most studies of yeast cells focus on seeing them from the “inside,” while atomic force microscopy (AFM) allows discoveries of the yeast cell wall from the “outside.” This powerful technology has allowed researchers to ask new questions about yeast cells and to give new insights into the cell wall of yeasts, from not only a morphological point of view but also a nanomechanical and functional point of view. Recent advances in AFM have made it possible to image yeast cells and to quantify their biophysical properties simultaneously. In this chapter, we first introduce the prerequisites for using AFM on yeast cells (i.e., immobilization methods). Then, we focus on the insights AFM has offered into the morphology of the yeast cell wall. In the third section, we show how nanomechanical studies of the yeast cell wall can enlighten and give important insight into complex biological phenomena. Finally, we discuss the possibility of functionalizing the AFM tip for single-molecule experiments or to measure cell–cell surface interactions.