Not to give a definitive answer, but some considerations. Tandem conjugates are useful for getting extra colors off of one excitation source. To do this requires some dyes that have a long stokes shift - i.e the idfference between the excitation and emission peaks is great. Most of the energy transfer conjugates use either PE or APC, molecules that have been crafted by nature for energy transfer. As far as I know (which, for being a software guy, is not great) there isn't an equivalent situation for violet or UV. There also are advantages or going further to the red end of the spectrum. Light sources are MUCH cheaper, and background autofluorescence is decreased. This is offset somewhat by a drop in detection efficiency of PMTs. -Marty Bigos Stanford Shared FACS Facility
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