Using OD (Optical Density) for determination of yeast concentration?

[funnycreature]

When working with bacteria the concentration of cells for certain applications (like IPTG induction) can be approximated by taking the optical density (OD) reading of the culture. I was wondering if anyone here knows something about using the OD method to test a yeast starter culture and determine a proper pitch rate this way. Of course one would need a spectrophotometer but I'm just curious if anyone has ever looked into this.

 

[day_trippr]

There's a decent amount of easily obtained literature available on the topic, a cursory search indicates. Using a ~600nm light source is a common thread. Still, dilution followed by hemocytometer use seems to be the prevailing method...

Cheers!

 

[funnycreature]

There's a decent amount of easily obtained literature available on the topic, a cursory search indicates. Using a ~600nm light source is a common thread. Still, dilution followed by hemocytometer use seems to be the prevailing method...

Cheers!

So it seems! Of course it'd be just a coarse method but if I could borrow a spectrophotometer and a couple of cuvettes from work it'd be a nice thing to try.

 

[FarmerTed]

Those old bausch and lomb (sp?) spectrophotometers can be had for pretty cheap on ebay, although you'll probably need to get a new bulb (they're cheap, too, from bulbster.com). I got an old one for a hundred bucks once. They work pretty well, especially if you just need a measurement at a single wavelength.