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Recent applications of flow cytometry in aquatic microbial ecology
Author(s) -
Troussellier Mare,
Courties Claude,
Vaquer André
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
biology of the cell
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.543
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1768-322X
pISSN - 0248-4900
DOI - 10.1016/0248-4900(93)90121-t
Subject(s) - biology , representativeness heuristic , aquatic ecosystem , algae , ecology , identification (biology) , microorganism , microbial ecology , scale (ratio) , biochemical engineering , bacteria , engineering , psychology , social psychology , genetics , physics , quantum mechanics
Summary— Microorganisms (unicellular algae, bacteria) constitute fundamental compartments of aquatic ecosystems because of their high concentrations and activities. The evaluation and understanding of their behaviour and role raise different problems for which traditional methodologies are often inadequate, whether they refer to global or classical microscopic analyses. Flow cytometry (FCM) has been recently used to study microorganisms in aquatic environments. Although this technology is still applied on a limited scale in our field, a large number of works has been done showing that FCM seems to be a promising tool for aquatic microbial ecology. This paper summarizes, from the literature produced during the last decade and with original data obtained in our laboratory, the main questions related to the cell identification, the evaluation of cell viability, biomasses and productions and the measurements of bacterial and phytoplanktonic activities. The representativeness of sampling and observation scales is also discussed within the framework of the FCM measurements.