An assessment of software for flow cytometry analysis in banana plants

Abstract

Flow cytometry is a technique that yields rapid results in analyses of cell properties such as volume, morphological complexity and quantitative DNA content, and it is considered more convenient than other techniques. However, the analysis usually generates histograms marked by variations that can be produced by many factors, including differences between the software packages that capture the data generated by the flow cytometer. The objective of the present work was to evaluate the performance of four software products commonly used in flow cytometry based on quantifications of DNA content and analyses of the coefficients of variation associated with the software outputs. Readings were obtained from 25 ‘NBA’ (AA) banana leaf samples using the FACSCalibur (BD) flow cytometer, and 25 histograms from each software product (CellQuest™, WinMDI™, FlowJo™ and FCS Express™) were analyzed to obtain the estimated DNA content and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the estimates. The values of DNA content obtained from the software did not differ significantly. However, the CV analysis showed that the precision of the WinMDI™ software was low and that the CV values were underestimated, whereas the remaining software showed CV values that were in relatively close agreement with those found in the literature. The CellQuest™ software is recommended because it was developed by the same company that produces the flow cytometer used in the present study.