title: Flow cytometry detection of planktonic cells with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons sorbed to cell surfaces.
abstract: Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are very important components of oil pollution. These pollutants tend to sorb to cell surfaces, exerting toxic effects on organisms. Our study developed a flow cytometric method for the detection of PAHs sorbed to phytoplankton by exploiting their spectral characteristics. We discriminated between cells with PAHs from cells free of PAHs. Clear discrimination was observed with flow cytometer provided with 375 or 405nm lasers in addition to the standard 488nm laser necessary to identify phytoplankton. Using this method, we measured the relationship between the percentages of phytoplankton organisms with PAHs, with the decrease in the growth rate. Moreover, the development of this method could be extended to facilitate the study of PAHs impact on cell cultures from a large variety of organisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Change Research, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados, Miquel Marqués 21, 07190 Esporles, Spain. Electronic address: mbel.cerezo@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Cerezo
authors.affiliation: Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), The University of Western Australia, Mail Bag 510, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley 6009, WA, Australia. Electronic address: matthew.linden@uwa.edu.au.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Linden
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Change Research, IMEDEA (CSIC-UIB), Instituto Mediterráneo de Estudios Avanzados, Miquel Marqués 21, 07190 Esporles, Spain; Red Sea Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: sagusti@imedea.uib-csic.es.
authors.forename: Susana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Agustí
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D059392:Petroleum Pollution; D010839:Phytoplankton / Q000737:chemistry*; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons
keywords: Cell fluorescence; Flow cytometry; Oil spills; PAHs; Phytoplankton; Ultraviolet laser