Data and code from: Imaging flow cytometry enables label-free cell sorting of morphological variants from populations of the unculturable bacterium <em>Pasteuria ramosa</em>

Bacterial populations often display remarkable morphological heterogeneity. Flow cytometric cell sorting (often called FACS) is an important tool for understanding this diversity. FACS allows researchers to obtain pure samples of each morphological variant (or morphotype) that is present within a mixed population of cells and thus permits each morphotype to be phenotyped. In FACS, cells are first labeled with fluorescent markers such as antibodies or transgenic constructs, and then separated out based on their possession of these labels. However, since the development of fluorescent labels requires a priori knowledge of bacterial biology, it is often impossible to apply FACS to understudied and/or unculturable bacteria. This challenge has limited our capacity to investigate the biology of bacterial size and shape in all but a small, largely culturable subset of bacterial taxa. Here, we present an innovative strategy that permits label-free cell sorting of bacterial morphotypes, using an..., , # Dryad dataset Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.1g1jwsv86](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1g1jwsv86) ## Description of the data and file structure *Daphnia magna* were experimentally infected with the bacterial parasite *Pasteuria ramosa*, which produces morphologically distinct stages (\"morphologies\") during its life cycle. Hosts were culled at various points post-infection. The composition of the *P. ramosa* cell population was analyzed using both an Attune Cytpix imaging flow cytometer and a (non-imaging) Influx cell-sorter (\"pre-sort analysis\"). The Influx cell-sorter was used to sort different target morphologies. The composition of the resulting sorted sample was then assessed using the Attune Cytpix, to quantify the purity of the sorted sample (\"post-sort\" analysis). For the sake of efficiency, a random sample of events was inspected. Full details of the methods are given in the publication. ### Files and variables #### File: vocelleetal_analysis_v2.Rmd **Description:** R Mar...,