title: When Wavelengths Collide: Bias in Cell Abundance Measurements Due to Expressed Fluorescent Proteins.
abstract: The abundance of bacteria in liquid culture is commonly inferred by measuring optical density at 600 nm. Red fluorescent proteins (RFPs) can strongly absorb light at 600 nm. Increasing RFP expression can falsely inflate apparent cell density and lead to underestimations of mean per-cell fluorescence by up to 10%. Measuring optical density at 700 nm would allow estimation of cell abundance unaffected by the presence of nearly all fluorescent proteins.
authors.affiliation: Joint Initiative for Metrology in Biology, Stanford, California 94305, United States.|Genome-Scale Measurements Group, National Institute of Standards and Technology , Stanford, California 94305, United States.|Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University , Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hecht
authors.affiliation: Joint Initiative for Metrology in Biology, Stanford, California 94305, United States.|Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University , Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Drew
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Endy
authors.affiliation: Joint Initiative for Metrology in Biology, Stanford, California 94305, United States.|Genome-Scale Measurements Group, National Institute of Standards and Technology , Stanford, California 94305, United States.|Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University , Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salit
authors.affiliation: Joint Initiative for Metrology in Biology, Stanford, California 94305, United States.|Genome-Scale Measurements Group, National Institute of Standards and Technology , Stanford, California 94305, United States.|Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University , Stanford, California 94305, United States.
authors.forename: Matthew S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Munson
mesh_terms: D005453:Fluorescence; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D000097573:Red Fluorescent Protein
chemical_list: D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D000097573:Red Fluorescent Protein
keywords: OD600; OD700; RFP; abundance; optical density