Profiting from the Visible Spectrum

Abstract

Flow cytometry advanced during the decade of the 1980s. Portability, as well as technological advances in the instruments, now allows the simultaneous study of chemical and biological parameters within intact cells both at sea and in the laboratory. Here we report on photoadaptation, fluorescence quenching, metabolic activity, and photosynthetic products (lipids). Endocytosis can also be monitored over time. Flow cytometry enables observation of many and various parameters of individual particles that cannot be obtained from bulk measurements alone.

Keywords:

• Flow cytometry
• fluorescence
• chlorophyll
• phytoplankton
• FDA
• Nile Red
• endocytosis