I am automating a workflow for analysis of real-time PCR data sourced from a Roche LightCycler. There are multiple channels for sensing different fluorophores that have a slightly overlapping fluorescence spectrum as detailed here (referred to as "crosstalk"). The detected signals are thus a linear weighting of the true fluorescence, as detailed in Table 1 / Formula 1 here. This is corrected with colour compensation as detailed in the first link.
There is very little (i.e. no) information regarding the format of the older LightCycler file formats ABT (details a particular run) and CCC (details the colour compensation), and I was hoping someone could please provide guidance.
In the ABT file there is a section ^CCC (all section headers appear to start with ^) which includes the location of the colour compensation file and its contents (a 12x4 matrix of numbers that I am trying to make sense of). In my case they appear as (with file paths changed):
^CCC:
?3.5.28?41341.5766203704?C:\.......\file.ABT?C:\......\file.ccc??
1 1 1
-1.33786041651041E-8 3.39600416861281E-6 -0.000392286209994558 0.196738637483626
-6.43980805238762E-9 1.50246180493155E-6 -0.000107523827209977 0.112676603581708
-2.23359269130001E-8 4.9982365413899E-6 -0.000398780255441468 0.0600920934768699
1.55891872931679E-5 -0.00505090913467267 0.162405918150517 34.8790113064609
2.27218464185121E-8 -0.000146878157270101 0.0123033869019081 1.42038161205974
-1.42030623826416E-7 1.40575424253722E-6 0.0012288371257375 0.290852973511342
2.1866259759953E-9 9.8947181762574E-7 -0.00031255171342293 0.199654709634488
-1.40190153175352E-5 0.00289266217140399 -0.188211203807182 5.67986350485893
-4.39402518213953E-6 0.000909318177116326 -0.0584074241424017 1.73152377696672
7.01531463682071E-7 -0.000117467670542772 0.0039676094304943 0.282456463232278
1.37437444939199E-7 -2.4255075537722E-5 0.000917545927808637 0.132638408109113
1.31314492531558E-5 -0.00255990120176339 0.143275086483057 -1.36050870155249
What do these numbers describe?
EDIT: Since originally posting, I accessed a colour compensation file and found that it is identical to the numbers in the ABT.
