Laboratory of Neuroscience, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, 060-0812, Japan.
Traffic. 2014 Jan;15(1):1-11. doi: 10.1111/tra.12127. Epub 2013 Oct 31.
In tracking analysis, the movement of cargos by motor proteins in axons is often represented by a time-space plot termed a 'kymograph'. Manual creation of kymographs is time-consuming and complicated for cell biologists. Therefore, we developed KYMOMAKER, a simple system that automatically creates a kymograph from a movie without generating multiple time-dissected movie stacks. In addition, KYMOMAKER can automatically extract faint vesicle traces, and can thereby effectively analyze cargos expressed at low levels in axons. A filter can be applied to remove traces of non-physiological movements and to extract meaningful traces of anterograde or retrograde cargo transport. For example, only cargos that move at a speed of >0.4 µm/second for a distance of >1 µm can be included. Another function of KYMOMAKER is to create a color kymograph in which the color of the trace varies according to the position of the fluorescent particle in the axis perpendicular to the long axis of the axon. Such positional information is completely lost in conventional kymographs. KYMOMAKER is an open access program that can be easily used to analyze vesicle transport in axons by cell biologists who do not have specific knowledge of bioimage informatics.
在追踪分析中，轴突中马达蛋白运输货物的运动通常通过称为“示踪图”的时空图来表示。手动创建示踪图对于细胞生物学家来说既耗时又复杂。因此，我们开发了 KYMOMAKER，这是一个简单的系统，它可以从电影中自动创建示踪图，而不会生成多个时间分解的电影堆栈。此外，KYMOMAKER 可以自动提取微弱的囊泡痕迹，从而有效地分析在轴突中低水平表达的货物。可以应用过滤器来去除非生理运动的痕迹，并提取有意义的顺行或逆行货物运输痕迹。例如，只能包括以 >0.4µm/秒的速度移动 >1µm 距离的货物。KYMOMAKER 的另一个功能是创建彩色示踪图，其中痕迹的颜色根据荧光颗粒在垂直于轴突长轴的轴上的位置而变化。在传统的示踪图中，这种位置信息完全丢失。KYMOMAKER 是一个开放访问的程序，即使没有生物图像信息学特定知识的细胞生物学家也可以轻松使用该程序来分析轴突中的囊泡运输。
