16 Flow Cytometric Analysis of
Autotrophic Picoplankton
L Campbell
Department of Oceanography, TexasA&M University,College Station, TX 77843-3146, USA
CONTENTS
Introduction
Methods
Analysis and interpretation of results
Discussion and future directions
Resources
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INTRODUCTION
Flow cytometry is a valuable, if not essential, tool for studies of aquatic
microbial populations. The technology of flow cytometry permits the
simultaneous measurement of multiple properties of individual cells in
suspension. Although flow cytometry was developed for mammalian cell
systems, the capabilities of this instrumentation for rapid enumeration
and quantification of both structural and functional properties of individual cells makes it ideal for applications in marine microbial ecology.
The enormous potential of flow cytometry in the study of marine
microbial ecology is well recognized. Since the early 1980s (Yentsch et al.,
1983; Olson et al., 1983), the number of flow cytometry applications in
marine microbial ecology has increased tremendously (for reviews see
Olson et al., 1991; Fouchet et al., 1993; Porter, 1999; Collier and Campbell,
1999). Flow cytometry has become an indispensable tool in marine microbial ecology for the identification and enumeration of picoplankton, that
is, cells that are < 2 pm in diameter (Chisholm et al., 1986). The recognition
of the importance of picoplankton has resulted in a fundamental change
in our understanding of the food web of the ocean (Pomeroy, 1974; Azam
et al., 1983). An important goal in microbial ecology is to increase our
understanding of the roles individual organisms play in oceanic food
webs. To do this we will employ the rapidly increasing number of tools
we have available to collect information on activities at the single-cell
level.
The aim of this chapter is to provide an introduction for both the experienced flow cytometrist faced with the challenge of investigating cells
METHODS IN MICROBIOLOGY, VOLUME 30
ISBN 0-12 521530 4
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