Enhanced proliferation of yeast subjected to nanosecond electrical pulses

Non-thermal intense pulsed electric field (PEF) can be a novel physical stress onto organisms. A large number of experiments on inactivating or killing microorganisms by using PEFs have been reported since Sale and Hamilton´s experiment in 1960´s. Strong fields exceeding 10 kV/cm are likely to damage cell membrane of microorganisms, and their repetitive application leads to the death. Inversely, there have been several studies on activating organisms by the electrical pulses, such as accelerating germination and growth rate [1], enhancement of proliferation on mammalian cells [2].