Highlights

RESONANT RADIOFREQUENCY FIELDS DAMAGING SAC-

CHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE
W S Dias, E H M Liquer, L C Gontijo, T A Oakes, G S Dias, C Marques, H
H S Chavez

• The work discusses the radio frequency induced mortality for single cell
organisms;

• The geometry of the field propagating is projected to maximize the

Poynting vector at the sample localization;

• Genotoxity due to the ionic modulated concentrations at the cytoplasm

medium is considered as the most probable mechanism behind the re-
sulting mortality of the irradiated samples;
 RESONANT RADIOFREQUENCY FIELDS
DAMAGING SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE
W S Diasa , E H M Liquera , L C Gontijob , T A Oakesb , G S Diasb , C
Marquesb , H H S Chavezc
a
Multivix Faculty R. Jose Alves, Vitoria, 29075-080, Espirito Santo, Brazil
b
Instituto Federal de Ciencia e Tecnologia, Av. Vitoria, Vitoria, 29040-780, Espirito
Santo, Brazil
c
UCL Faculty, ES-010, Km 06, Serra, 29173-087, Espirito Santo, Brazil

Abstract
This work describes an experiment and some results on the instability involv-
ing the proliferation of cells over some radio frequency electromagnetic field.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells were cultured, and separate samples were ex-
amined within 6 hours. The frequency, the pulse width and peak-to-peak
voltages were fixed. Producing at least 1 kV across the cell membrane in
milk suspension. It was observed that in the presence of the electromagnetic
field the cells had their time life drastically reduced when compared to the
control sample.
Keywords: Eletromagnetic Field, Genotoxity, Radiofrequency,
Saccharomices Cereviciae
PACS: 13.40.-f, 87.80.-y

1. Introduction
The use of electric fields to control the proliferation of microorganisms
were first described and patented by [1] in the early 1960s. After, reference
[2] analyzed the effects of DC pulses on microorganisms in a systematically
way. Following these works, radio frequency technology has proven useful for
a wide range of applications over the decades since the initial research. The
extensive use of electromagnetic field has been applied in food preservation
as discussed in [3, 4, 5, 7, 8]. The authors describe industrial processes with
the application of radio frequencies for the elimination of microorganisms
in food production, in order to increase shelf life and final product quality.

Preprint submitted to Biotechnology Advances October 28, 2021

Telecommunication industries and data processing machines has an enormous
potential to cause cancer and harm the human reproductive system. This
lead many countries like Canada, the Europe Union and US to adopt the
document known as IC RSS-102 or equivalents[6, 12] to certify the security
of commercial equipment which uses radio frequency(RF). This resolution
then defines safe limits of exposition for the users of those technologies, as-
serting that outside the range they are potentially dangerous to human cells.
The nature of the danger of x-rays to molecules and cells of organisms was
discovered by radiologists when they began to develop consistent studies of
skin diseases after extensive and prolonged exposure to x-rays. Thus leading
to the study on the nature of these effects. The elucidation of its genotoxic
potential (such as inducing mutations in the genetic material of cells, cell
death, and so on.) is of great importance at our times, when technologies
are spreading throughout a wide range of fields in day-to-day life. In terms
of constructive applications by the bio-eletromagnetic interaction would be
pointed out, for example, the interruption of the formation processes or even
the ionic balances of the cellular reproduction process, as it is well known.
According to them, only by varying the potential of the field applied, one
can stimulate and inhibit cellular processes.
The main goal of this work is to study the effects of the exposure of high
frequency electromagnetic waves in a solution of milk and Saccharomyces
cerevisiae and to evaluate the effects of fields.

2. Presentation of the Experiment and main Results

Saccharomyces Cerevisiae S288C is an unicellular eukaryotic organism
that belongs to the kingdom of fungi. It is the yeast used in the production
of bread and also of beer, besides being used for the production of ethanol.
A milk solution containing 20 g of dry biological yeast (Saccharomyces cere-
visiae), 20 g of sucrose and 200 ml of milk was prepared at 28 Celsius degrees.
The solution was divided into four equal samples, two for control and two
for the application of the electromagnetic field. We use the Radio Frequency
Generator Kenwood Transceiver, Model TS-2000, operating in a constant fre-
quency mode of 28 MHz frequency carrier modulation. This frequency was
chosen because it was part of the used range in the cited studies involving
radio frequency. The antenna that was developed for our purposes is called
magnetic loop and is shown at figure 1. It constitutes of an RLC circuit with
a metal circle in a torus geometry, which resonates at the frequency of the

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experiment. Measurements were calculated in the MMANA antenna simula-
tor software, obtained at [9], following the field setup in order to expose the
samples. See figure below.

Figure 1: Field geometric pattern of an antenna showing the monopolar and dipole con-
tributions to the intensity of applied field.

Based on these materials, the antenna was placed together with the radio
frequency generating equipment on a wooden table covered by glass. Inside
the loop of the antenna - area of the greatest electromagnetic field - two
beakers were arranged with 50 ml of the solution in each one. Two additional
50 ml beakers were placed outside and away from the antenna loop, spaced
at a distance of at least one meter from the radiating assembly and adopted
as a control sample.
A power of 25 watts was applied to the antenna, bringing the peak-to-
peak voltage at the coil to 2.8 v. In the figure below it can be verified that
a fluorescent lamp remains lit without any electrical contact inside the loop,
demonstrating the high intensity of the lines of force that concentrate there.
The experiment environment was closely supervised to verify that the tem-
perature remained the same as the initial temperature. In the temperature
measurements performed every hour, during the 6 hours of the experiment,
no difference in temperature between the samples was noticed. This pre-
caution was taken so that the temperature variation did not interfere in the
development of the cells in the analysis of the result. After 6 hours of ex-
posure, individual samples of each beaker were collected and survivor cells

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were counted throughout photos captured from a microscope. The general
state of the cells of each beaker could be visualized as shown at the figures2
and 3 in the next section.

Figure 2: Experiment setup showing the control and treated samples. The toroidal alu-
minum antenna generates intense electric field at the region of the samples, which contains
the Sacc. Cereviciae organisms.

Principal results are shown at the figures below, where we see a stringent
correlation between electromagnetic field application and mortality of the
micro organisms.

Figure 3: Microscopic image of the cell sample after field exposure: the majority of the
cells are partially inactive (light blue ones) or completely inactive (dark blue ones).

The control sample is showed at figure 3 below.

At the bar graph (figure 4), we summarize the results. The first blue
colored bar, represents the percentage number of live microorganisms (L) at
the control sample, the second one (green) represents the percentage of dead-
live (DL) cells and the third (yellow) represents the percentage of dead cells.

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Figure 4: Microscopic image of the control cell sample: the majority of the cells are alive
(white ones) or partially inactive (light blue ones).

Figure 5: The bars indicate the percentage of the survivor cells (blue bars), the sick cells
(green bars) and the dead cells (yellow bars). The first three bars are the control sample,
the remaining are after field exposure.

At the second set of colored blue, green and yellow bars, we see a completely
distinct behavior in the sample which was submitted to the electromagnetic
field. Clearly we have a growth of the population of the affected cells instead
of the live ones.
It is possible to interpret these results in terms of an elegant simple model,
which describes these initial results in a zero order approximation, not in
quantum level approach, by coupling the external field with the ion charge
density inside the cell.
In fact, it is possible to define a classical resonant flux model when we
consider the interaction of the external electromagnetic field (EEF) with the
ions flux inside the cell (at cell membrane or at the mitochondria) respon-
sible for production of ATP. The resonances could happen when external
electromagnetic field frequency wEEF is an integer multiple of the ion flux
frequency wions .

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 In the resonance case the intensity of the ions flux increases, producing
an elevation of the cell ATP. When wEEF is different of an integer multiple
of the wions , the intensity of the ions flux of the cell tends to be annihilated,
thus decreasing the ATP. In both cases, of the resonance, or not, the ATP
will change; the intensity of this change depends on the Poynting vector of
the EEF.
We can think too about a second possibility that works together with
the mitocondrial machine in the sense of uppgrade the effect: the same ions
ressonace discribe above, but taking place in the flux of ions that occur in
the plasmatic menbrane of the cell as a whole. The Flux of ions trought the
plasmatic membrane is important to the exchange of material between inter-
nal and external cell envarioment that provides biomolecules importantes to
kept the life of the cell.

3. Conclusions
As predicted by [10, 11] the immersion in the electromagnetic field proved
to be efficient in drastically reducing the number of healthy cells in the sam-
ples that were submitted to the field. Such thing could be happening through
interference in the mitochondrial electrochemical processes or by the disrup-
tion of the cell’s membrane integrity.
We devise, following [10] that the long exposition of electromagnetic field
may cause a variation of the ATP demand for the basic process inside the
cells, stressing them and killing cells. The basic physics behind this process
can be related to a dynamically redefinition of ion concentrations or ion
gradients inside the cells. This hypothesis needs deeper analyses and future
experiments. Which are being considered for future developments.
As we see, a wide range of applications not only in the area of food
preservation but also in the medical field can be glimpsed from this tech-
nique, enabling the development of industrial and medical equipment aimed
at microbiological control. Other possible application is to try to reduce the
tumoral cell growth by applying specific fields setups that, in some way, could
fully break mitochondrial metabolism.
In particular, we are developing the study of the effect of radiation at the
proliferation of more complex organisms, whose large reproduction causes
diseases at agricultural plants and forests like the Atlantic Forest in Espı́rito
Santo, Brazil.

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 We thank Dr. Adriana Korres from Federal Institute, IFES, for the sup-
port in the experiment at the Microbiology Lab. Also we thank Isabelle
Cohen for the suggestions in the writing of this paper.

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ment. Acessado em 30/07/2018.

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