Optical trapping and surgery of yeast cells cultured in liquid media

Abstract

We present optical trapping and surgery of living yeast cells cultured in viscous liquid media using near-infrared (NIR) ultrashort pulsed laser. Living yeast cells were exposed to continuous wave (CW) and femtosecond-pulsed focused laser of 780 nm wavelength at 20–60 mW of laser power. We show that focused laser beam operating in CW mode power does not affect the cell walls and can even be used for non-invasive optical trapping of yeast cells. Movement of trapped yeast cell is observed when the laser focus is scanned along a line. Furthermore, by changing the operation of the laser to femtosecond pulsed mode, we show that using a tightly focused laser dissected the rigid yeast cell walls resulting in intracellular organelles efflux.