Cell count in solution - (Aug/23/2008 )

Is there any way to keep track of the number of cells inside a petri dish/other container? As in, on the go, so that it is a statistic in a computer?? Just one or two or 8 cells max?

how many cells are you talking about?

The best I have read is a group which followed the cell divisions of a single cell e.coli cell until the micro colony numbered 500 cells (on a monolayer) using a computer.
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlere...bmedid=15685293

But for really big populations 10^7, I can only think of spectrophotometer to give you real time info.. measuring OD of the culture... although this method isn't exact.

Else you may to take a sample, dilute the sample and count the cells with the aid of haemocytometer, maybe with a dye to discriminate dead and live cell, or plate out onto agar plates, and count the resulting colonies.

I want to track the fission rates of various microbe phenotypes and genetic variants. So, for maximum accuracy in regards to individual genetic differences, the less microbes the better, so that individuals could be singled out for analysis.