Terahertz dielectric constant of cell wall composition for different types of microorganisms

We investigated the THz dielectric constant of a wide range of microbial species in conjunction with their cell wall compositions. In general, the dielectric constant of the molds was lower than that of bacteria, whereas the yeasts exhibited particularly high dielectric constants, which were higher than that of water. The measurement on the dielectric constants of peptidoglycan and polysaccharides such as chitin, α-glucan, and β-glucans revealed that cell wall composition is the main cause of the observed differences in dielectric constants for different types of microorganisms.