Tachi C
Institute of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, Japan.
Dev Genet. 1988;9(2):121-54. doi: 10.1002/dvg.1020090204.
The possible application of microcomputer-based video-image analysis systems for the quantitative description of coat-color patterns in artificially produced chimeras and genetic mosaics of mice was investigated using a program developed by the author. This system is capable of extracting, from sampled images of pelts, the morphometric image features as defined by Pratt [1978] that are essential to the quantitative description of coat-color patterns in these animals. It does so with reasonable accuracy and speed and at low cost. No description of any similar system has been published in the literature. Performance of our system is described using C3H/HeJ----BALB/c chimeras as examples. The complex phenotypic expression of hair pigmentation in mice makes the use of a video-image analysis system like this one essential to evaluate the morphometric parameters of the patterns (e.g., the mixing ratios between the two components, the number of different-colored stripes, etc.) more precisely and reproducibly than has been done yet in the literature. The results indicate that the number of melanoblast clones in mice, as estimated from the number of minimal recognizable stripes (MRS), might be considerably larger than previously indicated; the figure presently obtained, i.e., 22.3 +/- 2.16 unilaterally in terms of the hypothetical maximum number of stripes (HMNS) (28.73 +/- 1.55, after correction for the random clumping) in the thoracicolumbar region of the mouse closely approximates the number of the somites in that region. Concerning the degree of mixing between the two components, it was proposed that the unmixed portion of the components derived from one strain increases in proportion to the second power of the increase in the relative total content of the same components. Work is in progress in our laboratory to analyze a large number of the chimeric pelts using the system described in this paper.
利用作者开发的一个程序，对基于微型计算机的视频图像分析系统在人工培育的小鼠嵌合体和基因镶嵌体毛色模式定量描述方面的可能应用进行了研究。该系统能够从皮毛的采样图像中提取普拉特[1978]定义的形态测量图像特征，这些特征对于定量描述这些动物的毛色模式至关重要。它能以合理的精度、速度且低成本做到这一点。文献中尚未发表任何关于类似系统的描述。以C3H/HeJ----BALB/c嵌合体为例描述了我们系统的性能。小鼠毛发色素沉着的复杂表型表达使得使用这样的视频图像分析系统对于比文献中迄今为止更精确且可重复地评估模式的形态测量参数（例如，两种成分之间的混合比例、不同颜色条纹的数量等）至关重要。结果表明，从小鼠最小可识别条纹（MRS）数量估计的黑素母细胞克隆数量可能比之前指出的要大得多；目前在小鼠胸腰段区域单侧获得的数字，即假设最大条纹数（HMNS）（经随机聚集校正后为28.73 +/- 1.55）为22.3 +/- 2.16，与该区域的体节数量非常接近。关于两种成分之间的混合程度，有人提出，来自一个品系的成分未混合部分随相同成分相对总含量增加的二次方比例增加。我们实验室正在进行工作，使用本文所述系统分析大量嵌合皮毛。
