Dielectric behavior of non-spherical cells in culture.

In order to study dielectric behavior of non-spherical cells growing in suspension culture, a dielectric theory has been developed based on the shell-ellipsoid model that is a conducting ellipsoid covered with a thin insulating shell. The theory predicts three dielectric relaxations for a suspension of ellipsoidal cells with three different semiaxes. For prolate spheroidal cells with two different semiaxes that show two dielectric relaxations the effect of the axial ratio on the dielectric relaxations was examined in detail. The low-frequency relaxation attributed to the component along the major axis strongly depends on the axial ratio, while the high-frequency relaxation due to the component along the minor axis is rather insensitive to the axial ratio. The theory is also applicable to simulation of dielectric behavior of yeast cells in synchronized and asynchronized culture by assuming that budding yeast cells are prolate spheroids.