Flow Cytometry and Sorting of Plant Protoplasts and Cells

There are no theoretical limitations either on the sizes of the cells that can be analyzed and sorted using flow cytometry or on the sizes of the flow cells that can be employed. However, traditional procedures of flow cytometry and cell sorting and the designs of the instrumentation have been optimized using small biological cells and artificial microspheres. When dealing with the flow analysis and sorting of larger particles, a variety of practical considerations enter the picture. This chapter discusses some of the problems and their resolution in the sorting of biological cells as large as 100 μm using commercially available flow cytometric instrumentation. In principle, the procedures are applicable to all biological cells and cell aggregates within this size range, although they are illustrated for plant protoplasts, pollen, and spores of the tree-club moss Lycopodium.