Image-Flow-Cytometer

• Subject Area: Plant Sciences
• Term: Funded in 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 426669777

The image flow cytometer is specially designed for the co-localization of different fluorescent dyes at the subcellular level and the simultaneous detection of the morphology of cells and localization of specific fluorescent dyes in high throughput. This opens up completely new possibilities for describing and mechanistically investigating the interactions within microbial communities, in particular when the interaction involves internalization of one of the interacting species (host-virus and (endo)symbiotic interactions), as well as when species rapidly diversify in terms of their morphology. The proposed image flow cytometer is indispensable for our work on the mechanistic understanding of the ecological and evolutionary changes within microbial communities, specifically for the detection of relationships between traits which requires the concurrent recording of several traits of individual cells or particles. We plan to use image flow cytometry for the localization of aquatic viruses at the subcellular level of host cells, for the localization of symbiotic cells within host cells and for correlations between cell morphology and localization of protein expression. The high throughput of imaging flow cytometry allows further the characterization of traits of different interacting species be recorded in a statistically robust manner. An imaging flow cytometer is not available at the University of Constance.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Image-Flow-Cytometer
• Instrumentation Group: 3500 Zellzähl- und Klassiergeräte (außer Blutanalyse), Koloniezähler
• Applicant Institution: Universität Konstanz
• Leader: Professor Dr. Lutz Becks