Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy to study diffusion through diatom nanopores.

The intricate pore architecture of diatom frustules has been extensively studied mainly as the basis of diatom classification. There have, however, been very few reports on understanding the effect of the pore architecture on the movement of molecules through the pores. Information on molecular transport though diatom membrane pores has the potential to help develop more efficient membrane filtration systems.

Quantitative characterization of different strains of Saccharomyces yeast by analysis of fluorescence microscopy images of cell populations.

Much of our knowledge concerned with microbial cells is based on population-based analysis of cultures, which give useful insights into average responses but neither on individual cells nor subpopulations. In this work we demonstrate how to access and utilise large amounts of valuable information concerned with cell populations contained in laser scanning microscopy images. To this aim we carried out quantitative characterization of selected strains of Saccharomyces yeast by image and statistical analysis of the Laser Scanning Microscopy images.

Characterization of yeast strains by fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy.

The results of fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy of selected yeast strains were presented and the fact that the lifetime distributions can be successfully used for strain characterization and differentiation was demonstrated. Four strains of industrially relevant yeast Saccharomyces were excited at 405 nm and the autofluorescence observed within 440-540 nm. Using statistical tools such as empirical cumulative distribution functions with Kolmogorov-Smirnov testing, the four studied strains were categorized into three different groups for normal sample size of 70 cells slide(-1) at a significance level of 5%.

Use of fluorescence spectroscopy to differentiate yeast and bacterial cells.

This study focuses on the characterization of bacterial and yeast species through their autofluorescence spectra. Lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus sp.), and yeast (Saccharomyces sp.