Quantification of Saccharomyces cerevisiae viability using BacLight

Yeast viability can be accurately quantified using BacLight, a kit which so far has been used only for bacterial analysis. Upon staining, viable cells can be differentiated from non-viable ones by either confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), epifluorescence microscopy, or flow cytometry. Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a model, viabilities quantified by CLSM deviated an average of 1.7% from the actual data, and those determined by flow-cytometry by 1.4%.