The addition of lucigenin (L) to yeast cells leads to appearance of chemiluminescence (CL). When the cells are subjected to high electric field pulses, the light emission depends on field intensity and pulse number. A divergence in kinetics and intensity of CL in electropermeabilized and control yeast cells is revealed. In both cases the CL is strongly influenced by the metabolic state and KCN. Treatment with detergent provokes a total CL inhibition. These studies suggest that the chemiluminescence is related to lucigenin interaction with metabolically generated reactive oxygen species (ROS) inside the cells. The role of electric field treatment is limited mainly to membrane permeability increase, and to facilitation of lucigenin access to the sites of ROS generation.