Currently, little is known about the mechanical properties of filamentous fungal hyphae. To study this topic, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to measure cell wall mechanical properties of the model fungus Aspergillus nidulans. Wild type and a mutant strain (deltacsmA), lacking one of the chitin synthase genes, were grown in shake flasks. Hyphae were immobilized on polylysine-coated coverslips and AFM force--displacement curves were collected. When grown in complete medium, wild-type hyphae had a cell wall spring constant of 0.29 +/- 0.02 N/m. When wild-type and mutant hyphae were grown in the same medium with added KCl (0.6 M), hyphae were significantly less rigid with spring constants of 0.17 +/- 0.01 and 0.18 +/- 0.02 N/m, respectively. Electron microscopy was used to measure the cell wall thickness and hyphal radius. By use of finite element analysis (FEMLAB v 3.0, Burlington, MA) to simulate AFM indentation, the elastic modulus of wild-type hyphae grown in complete medium was determined to be 110 +/- 10 MPa. This decreased to 64 +/- 4 MPa for hyphae grown in 0.6 M KCl, implying growth medium osmotic conditions have significant effects on cell wall elasticity. Mutant hyphae grown in KCl-supplemented medium were found to have an elastic modulus of 67 +/- 6 MPa. These values are comparable with other microbial systems (e.g., yeast and bacteria). It was also found that under these growth conditions axial variation in elastic modulus along fungal hyphae was small. To determine the relationship between composition and mechanical properties, cell wall composition was measured by anion-exchange liquid chromatography and pulsed electrochemical detection. Results show similar composition between wild-type and mutant strains. Together, these data imply differences in mechanical properties may be dependent on varying molecular structure of hyphal cell walls as opposed to wall composition.

A glucose binding protein labeled with a polarity-sensitive probe can be used for measuring micromolar amounts of glucose. Using a lifetime-assisted ratiometric technique, a low-cost GBP-based micromolar glucose monitor could be built.

Pulsed electrochemical detection (PED) has been applied to the direct (i.e., requires no derivatization), sensitive and reproducible detection of numerous polar aliphatic compounds (e.g., carbohydrates, amines, and thiols). These compounds, many of which have biological significance, typically have been classified as non-electroactive for detection under constant applied potentials and have poor optical detection properties. PED exploits the electrocatalytic activity of noble metal (e.g., Au and Pt) electrode surfaces to oxidize various polar functional groups using multi-step potential-time waveforms to realize amperometric/coulometric detection while maintaining uniform and reproducible electrode activity. The response mechanisms in PED are dominated by the surface properties of the electrode, and as a consequence, members of each chemical class of compounds produce virtually identical voltammetric responses. Thus, the full analytical potential is achieved when combined with an a priori separation. Although popularized in combination with high performance liquid chromatography, the combination of PED with highly efficient microseparation techniques offer the analyst unique advantages. This paper reviews the fundamental aspects of PED especially at microelectrodes, and its application in microchromatographic and electrophoretic separation techniques, including microchip devices.

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