title: Optical trapping and surgery of living yeast cells using a single laser.
abstract: We present optical trapping and surgery of living yeast cells using two operational modes of a single laser. We used a focused laser beam operating in continuous-wave mode for noninvasive optical trapping and manipulation of single yeast cell. We verified that such operational mode of the laser does not cause any destructive effect on yeast cell wall. By changing the operation of the laser to femtosecond-pulsed mode, we show that a tightly focused beam dissects the yeast cell walls via nonlinear absorption. Lastly, using the combined technique of optical microsurgery and trapping, we demonstrate intracellular organelle extraction and manipulation from a yeast cell. The technique established here will be useful as an efficient method for both surgery and manipulation of living cells using a single laser beam.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Physics, University of the Philippines, Quezon City, 1101 Philippines.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ando
authors.forename: Godofredo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bautista
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Katsumasa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Vincent Ricardo
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Daria
mesh_terms: D002473:Cell Wall / Q000528:radiation effects; D003584:Cytological Techniques; D007834:Lasers; D018715:Microscopy, Video; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015388:Organelles; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000166:cytology* / Q000528:radiation effects*