ABSTRACT
The rise of biotechnology in its many guises over the last decade or so has acted as one of a number of spurs to the development of new analytical tools for the characterization of cells of all types. To be able to follow such features as growth, death, secretion, cell division, metabolism, and surface phenomena, just as some examples, enables both understanding and control of cell behavior. Flow cytometry has been in the forefront of this drive. The first attempts at bacterial detection were made as early as the late 1940s, driven by the need to identify bacterial aerosols in warfare [1,2]. The next period of more intensive flow cytometric study of bacteria was in the late 1970s [3-6], Hutter and Eipel were the first to undertake a complex study on viability, total protein, and cell cycles of bacteria, yeasts, and molds, and the autofluorescence of algae. They had already employed the power of multiparameter measurements possible with flow cytometry, a feature neglected in many of the more recent studies. At the same time Steen used a modified microscope that he developed into a flow cytometer more geared for microbial applications. He did fundamental work in bacterial replication and, subsequently, in drug susceptibility [7]. Aspects of these and more recent developments have been reviewed [e.g., 7-12].
