Digital recordings of gas-vesicle collapse used to measure turgor pressure and cell-water relations of cyanobacterial cells

The gas vesicles of the cyanobacterium Microcystis sp. collapse under pressures ranging from 0.65a??1.10 MPa, determined from turbidity changes in a pressure nephelometer. In turgid cells, collapse occurs at a lower range of pressures; the difference is equal to the cell turgor pressure.