Given the recent resurgence of questions regarding flow sorting of miscellaneous "large" objects, Kristi Harkins and I published a reasonably detailed analysis of the problems encountered in large particle sorting (as well as some solutions) in: Harkins, K. R. and Galbraith, D. W. (1987). Factors governing the flow cytometric analysis and sorting of large biological particles. Cytometry 8:60-71. A couple of points are worth reiterating: 1. You can sort particles at high efficiencies with diameters up to 50% of that of the jet, given suitable selection of droplet drive frequencies, sheath pressures, etc. We sorted maize pollen (90 microns or so) using a 200 micron tip, with essentially 100% recovery. 2. You need to set up sort efficiencies using particles that approximate the size of the cells of interest, not (much smaller) beads or other cell types. You can have 100% efficiency of bead sorting with lousy efficiencies of large particle sorting (but not vice versa!). Regards to all, David ________________ David W. Galbraith Professor of Plant Sciences Department of Plant Sciences University of Arizona 303 Forbes Building Tucson Arizona 85721 USA. Tel: (520) 621-9153 Fax: (520) 621-7186 Email: galbraith@arizona.edu http://latin.arizona.edu/~dgalbrai Plant-Insect Interaction program: http://ag.arizona.edu/pii-rtg
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