Biotium offers a wide range of cellular stains, including dyes that stain specific cellular structures, and dyes that distinguish live cells from dead. See our complete selection of Cellular Stains.
Because not every dye will stain every cell type, this table provides a general guide for whether a dye can stain your organism of interest. A “Yes” indicates the stain is validated for the organism and may be used for reliable analysis. A “No” indicates that we do not recommend this stain for that organism; however some staining may still occur. Note: there may cell type differences that vary from the results shown in this table. See our FAQ for more information.
For most of the stains the following cell types were used:
Mammalian cells: HeLa
Yeast: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Gram+ bacteria: Staphylococcus epidermidis
Gram- bacteria: E. coli
Cell Stains in Various Organisms
Localization |
Dye |
Mammalian |
Yeast |
Gram+ Bacteria |
Gram- Bacteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cell Surface | CellBrite™ Cytoplasmic Membrane Dyes | Yes | No | No | No |
| CellBrite™ Steady Membrane Dyes | Yes | No | No | No | |
| CellBrite™ Fix Membrane Stains | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| MemBrite™ Fix Membrane Stains | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| BactoSpore™ 485/500 Membrane Stain | Yes (1) | Yes (1) | Yes | Yes | |
| SynaptoGreen™ C4 (FM®1-43) | Yes | Yes (2) | Yes | Yes | |
| SynaptoRed™ C2 (FM®4-64) | Yes | Yes (2) | Yes | Yes | |
| CF® Dye WGA Conjugates | Yes | Yes (3) | Yes | No | |
| CF® Dye ConA Conjugates | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| Calcofluor White | No | Yes | Yes | No | |
| DNA | Hoechst | Yes | No (4) | Yes | Yes |
| DAPI | Yes | No (4) | Yes | Yes | |
| NucSpot® Live Cell Nuclear Stains | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
| RedDot™1 Far-Red Nuclear Stain | Yes | Yes (4) | Yes | Yes | |
| BactoSpore™ 488/540 Nuclear Stain | No data | No data | Yes | Yes | |
| BactoView™ Live Green | Yes | No (4) | Yes | Yes | |
| BactoView™ Live Red | No (4) | No (4) | Yes | Yes | |
| DMAO | Yes (5) | No (4) | Yes | Yes | |
| Thiazole Orange | Yes (6) | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Dead Cells (Yes indicates that dye is dead cell specific) |
Propidium Iodide | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ethidium Homodimer I (EthD-I) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Ethidium Homodimer III (EthD-III) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| RedDot™2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Live-or-Dye NucFix™ Red | Yes | Yes (7) | No (6) | Yes | |
| Live-or-Dye™ Fixable Viability Stains | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| NucSpot® Nuclear Stains | Yes | Yes | No (8) | Yes | |
| BactoView™ Dead Stains | Yes | No data | Yes | Yes | |
| Cytoplasm | ViaFluor® 405 SE Cell Proliferation Dye | Yes | No (9) | Yes | No |
| ViaFluor® 488 SE Cell Proliferation Dye | Yes | No (9) | Yes | No | |
| ViaFluor® CFSE Cell Proliferation Dye | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| Intracellular Structures | MitoView™ 405 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MitoView™ Green | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| MitoView™ 633 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| MitoView™ 650 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| MitoView™ 720 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| LysoView™ 405 | Yes | No (10) | Yes | Yes | |
| LysoView™ 488 | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
| LysoView™ 540 | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| LysoView™ 633 | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| LysoView™ 650 | Yes | No | No | No | |
| LipidSpot™ 488 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | |
| LipidSpot™ 610 | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
| Phalloidin Conjugates | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| ViaFluor® Live Cell Microtubule Stains | Yes | No (11) | No (11) | No (11) | |
| ViaVac™ Red/Green | No | Yes | No data | No data |
2. Internalizes to vacuolar membranes
3. Stains bud scars of budding yeast
4. Weak staining and not nuclear
5. Staining is not nuclear
6. Initially stains mitochondria, then redistributes to nucleus & cytoplasm
7. Dead cell specific but not nuclear
8. Stains live and dead cells
9. Not cytoplasmic, stains cell periphery
10. Staining is not lysosomal
11. Not predicted to bind yeast/bacterial cytoskeleton