Table 5-8. TECHNIQUES FOR SEPARATING X AND Y SPERM CELLS

Method				Principle

Albumin gradient			more active Y cells readily migrate into viscous solutions
Sephadex filtration			heavier X cells are eluted from the column first
Electrophoresis			negatively-charged X cells migrate rapidly toward the anode
Flow cytometry			fluorescent sorting of fluorochrome-labeled DNA (eg., Y chromatin-quinacrine)
Immunoaffinity chromatography		selectively bind cells to antibody attached to a solid support, then elute