Nonionizing electromagnetic field: a promising alternative for growing control yeast

BYRON RIFFO; CONSUELO HERRIQUEZ; RENATO CHAVEZ; RUBEN PEÑA; SANGORRIN; MARCELA PAULA; GANGA, MARIA ANGELICA

Journal of Fungi

mdpi

Año: 2021 vol. 7

In the food industry, some fungi are considered to be common spoilage microorganismswhich reduce the shelf life of products. To avoid this outcome, different technologies are beingdeveloped to control their growth. Electromagnetic fields (EMF) have been used to combat bacterialgrowth, but there are few studies on yeasts and their possible action mechanisms. For this reason, westudied the effect of EMF between 1 to 5.9 GHz bands on the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeastand observed that all the frequencies of the band used cause the reduction of the viability of thisyeast. In addition, we observed that the distance between the antenna and the sample is an importantfactor to consider to control the growing yeast. By using transmission electron microscopy, we foundthat the EMF caused a loss of continuity of the yeast cell membrane. Therefore, EMF may be used asa control method for yeast growth.