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An automated tracking system to measure the dynamic properties of vesicles in living cells
Author(s) -
Ku TienChuan,
Huang YunNih,
Huang ChienChang,
Yang DeMing,
Kao LungSen,
Chiu TaiYu,
Hsieh ChungFan,
Wu PeiYo,
Tsai YuhShow,
Lin ChungChih
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.20392
Subject(s) - tracking (education) , vesicle , biological system , computer science , temporal resolution , software , computer vision , measure (data warehouse) , tracking system , process (computing) , artificial intelligence , pattern recognition (psychology) , data mining , biology , physics , kalman filter , optics , membrane , psychology , pedagogy , genetics , operating system , programming language
Recent technological improvements have made it possible to examine the dynamics of individual vesicles at a very high temporal and spatial resolution. Quantification of the dynamic properties of secretory vesicles is labor‐intensive and therefore it is crucial to develop software to automate the process of analyzing vesicle dynamics. Dual‐threshold and binary image conversion were applied to enhance images and define the areas of objects of interest that were to be tracked. The movements, changes in fluorescence intensity, and changes in the area of each tracked object were measured using a new software system named the Protein Tracking system (PTrack). Simulations revealed that the system accurately recognized tracked objects and measured their dynamic properties. Comparison of the results from tracking real time‐lapsed images manually with those automatically obtained using PTrack revealed similar patterns for changes in fluorescence intensity and a high accuracy (<89%). According to tracking results, PTrack can distinguish different vesicular organelles that are similar in shape, based on their unique dynamic properties. In conclusion, the novel tracking system, PTrack, should facilitate automated quantification of the dynamic properties of vesicles that are important when classifying vesicular protein locations. Microsc. Res. Tech. 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.