Development of a two-parameter slit-scan flow cytometer for screening of normal and aberrant chromosomes: application to a karyotype of Sus scrofa domestica (pig)

Abstract

Laser fluorescence activated slit-scan flow cytometry offers an approach to a fast, quantitative characterization of chromosomes due to morphological features. It can be applied for screening of chromosomal abnormalities. We give a preliminary report on the development of the Heidelberg slit-scan flow cytometer. Time-resolved measurements of the fluorescence intensity along the chromosome axis can be registered simultaneously for two parameters when the chromosome passes perpendicularly through a narrowly focused laser beam combined by a detection slit in the image plane. So far automated data analysis has been performed off-line on a PC. In its final performance, the Heidelberg slit-scan flow cytometer will achieve on-line data analysis that allows an electroacoustical sorting of chromosomes of interest. Interest is high in the agriculture field to study chromosome aberrations that influence the size of litters in pig ( Sus scrofa domestica ) breeding. Slit-scan measurements have been performed to characterize chromosomes of pigs; we present results for chromosome 1 and a translocation chromosome 6/15.