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Flow Cytometry as a Method to Study Marine Unicellular Algae: Development, Problems, and Prospects

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Abstract

For more than the past three decades, flow cytometry has been successfully applied in various, including phytoplankton, studies that require rapid qualitative assessment of the physiological condition, chemical composition, and number of microalgal cells. The potential of this method for solving applied and fundamental problems in microalgae research, the parameters of main fluorescent dyes used for this method, the features of microalgae as study objects, as well as the challenges associated with the use of the method, are discussed in the present review.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is grateful to A.V. Boroda, a senior researcher of the Cell Technology Laboratory, Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center of Marine Biology, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, for his assistance in the preparation of this article.

Funding

The work was supported with grant no. 18-4-050 in the framework of the program Priority research in the interest of integrated development of the Far Eastern Branch of RAS.

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Correspondence to Zh. V. Markina.

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Markina, Z.V. Flow Cytometry as a Method to Study Marine Unicellular Algae: Development, Problems, and Prospects. Russ J Mar Biol 45, 333–340 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1063074019050079

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