Novel permittivity test for determination of yeast surface charge and flocculation abilities

Yeast flocculation has been found to be important in many biotechnological processes. It has been suggested that flocculation is promoted by decreasing electrostatic repulsion between cells. In this study, we used an unconventional rapid technique—permittivity test—for determination of the flocculation properties and surface charge values of three industrial yeast strains with well-known flocculation characteristics: Saccharomyces cerevisiae NCYC 1017 (brewery, ale), S. pastorianus NCYC 680 (brewery, lager), and Debaryomyces occidentalis LOCK 0251 (unconventional amylolytic yeast). The measurements of permittivity were compared with the results from two classical methods for determination of surface charge: Alcian blue retention and Sephadex DEAE attachment. The permittivity values for particular strains correlated directly with the results of Alcian blue retention (r = 0.9). The results also confirmed a strong negative relationship between the capacitance of yeast suspensions and their flocculation abilities. The highest permittivity was noted for the ale strain NCYC 1017, with weak flocculation abilities, and the lowest for the flocculating lager yeast NCYC 680. This paper is the first to describe the possibility of using a rapid permittivity test to evaluate the surface charge of yeast cells and their flocculation abilities. This method is of practical value in various biotechnological industries where flocculation is applied as a major method of cell separation.