细胞衰老：一种研究大肠杆菌细胞谱系分裂中分离和分区的工具。

CellAging: a tool to study segregation and partitioning in division in cell lineages of Escherichia coli.

机构信息

Department of Signal Processing, Tampere University of Technology, 33101 Tampere, Finland.

出版信息

Bioinformatics. 2013 Jul 1;29(13):1708-9. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btt194. Epub 2013 Apr 23.

DOI:10.1093/bioinformatics/btt194

PMID:23613488

Abstract

MOTIVATION

Cell division in Escherichia coli is morphologically symmetric. However, as unwanted protein aggregates are segregated to the cell poles and, after divisions, accumulate at older poles, generate asymmetries in sister cells' vitality. Novel single-molecule detection techniques allow observing aging-related processes in vivo, over multiple generations, informing on the underlying mechanisms.

RESULTS

CellAging is a tool to automatically extract information on polar segregation and partitioning in division of aggregates in E.coli, and on cellular vitality. From time-lapse, parallel brightfield and fluorescence microscopy images, it performs cell segmentation, alignment of brightfield and fluorescence images, lineage construction and pole age determination, and it computes aging-related features. We exemplify its use by analyzing spatial distributions of fluorescent protein aggregates from images of cells across generations.

AVAILABILITY

CellAging, instructions and an example are available at http://www.cs.tut.fi/%7esanchesr/cellaging/.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.

摘要

动机

大肠杆菌的细胞分裂在形态上是对称的。然而，由于不需要的蛋白质聚集体被隔离到细胞两极，并且在分裂后积累在较老的极区，因此在姐妹细胞的活力上产生了不对称性。新的单分子检测技术允许在体内观察与衰老相关的过程，跨越多个世代，从而了解潜在的机制。

结果

CellAging 是一种工具，可自动提取有关大肠杆菌中聚集体分裂和分区的极性隔离和分区信息，以及有关细胞活力的信息。通过时程、平行明场和荧光显微镜图像，它执行细胞分割、明场和荧光图像的对齐、谱系构建和极区年龄确定，并计算与衰老相关的特征。我们通过分析跨越几代细胞的荧光蛋白聚集体的空间分布来举例说明其用途。