Sampling for Flow Cytometry (FCM)
Advance preparation: for each sample to be collected, aliquot 900 µl of seawater (artificial seawater salts or complete sterile medium) into a labeled 1.2 ml cryovial.
Collect sample: add 100 µl of sample into cryovial containing 900 µl of seawater.
Keep cryovial cap clean and sterile.
Preserve/fix sample: In the chemical fume hood, lay out cryovial caps (inside cap facing up) and use the repeator pipet to add 5 µl of glutaraldehyde (25%) to each cap.
Cap each tube and mix well by inverting a few times.
Incubate for 10 minutes in the dark.
Flash-freeze tubes in liquid nitrogen and store at -80°C until analysis.
