Penetrating the ultra-tough yeast cell wall with finite element analysis model-aided design of microtools
Yanfei Zhang,
Wende He,
Li Wang,
Weiguang Su,
Hao Chen,
Anqing Li,
Jun Chen
Affiliations
Yanfei Zhang
School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research, Jinan 250353, China
Wende He
School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research, Jinan 250353, China
Li Wang
School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research, Jinan 250353, China
Weiguang Su
School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research, Jinan 250353, China
Hao Chen
School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research, Jinan 250353, China
Anqing Li
School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research, Jinan 250353, China
Jun Chen
School of Mechanical Engineering, Qilu University of Technology (Shandong Academy of Sciences), Jinan 250353, China; Shandong Institute of Mechanical Design and Research, Jinan 250353, China; Corresponding author
Summary: Microinjecting yeast cells has been challenging for decades with no significant breakthrough due to the ultra-tough cell wall and low stiffness of the traditional injector tip at the micro-scale. Penetrating this protection wall is the key step for artificially bringing foreign substance into the yeast. In this paper, a yeast cell model was built by using finite element analysis (FEA) method to analyze the penetrating process. The key parameters of the yeast cell wall in the model (the Young’s modulus, the shear modulus, and the Lame constant) were calibrated according to a general nanoindentation experiment. Then by employing the calibrated model, the injection parameters were optimized to minimize the cell damage (the maximum cell deformation at the critical stress of the cell wall). Key guidelines were suggested for penetrating the cell wall during microinjection.
