Leomil Fernanda S C, Zoccoler Marcelo, Dimova Rumiana, Riske Karin A
Departamento de Biofísica, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo 043039-032, Brazil.
Department of Theory and Bio Systems, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Potsdam 14424, Germany.
Bioinform Adv. 2021 Nov 23;1(1):vbab037. doi: 10.1093/bioadv/vbab037. eCollection 2021.
A reliable characterization of the membrane pore edge tension of single giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) requires the measurement of micrometer sized pores in hundreds to thousands of images. When manually performed, this procedure has shown to be extremely time-consuming and to generate inconsistent results among different users and imaging systems. A user-friendly software for such analysis allowing quick processing and generation of reproducible data had not yet been reported.
We have developed a software (PoET) for automatic pore edge tension measurements on GUVs. The required image processing steps and the characterization of the pore dynamics are performed automatically within the software and its use allowed for a 30-fold reduction in the analysis time. We demonstrate the applicability of the software by comparing the pore edge tension of GUVs of different membrane compositions and surface charges. The approach was applied to electroporated GUVs but is applicable to other means of pore formation.
The complete software is implemented in Python and available for Windows at https://dx.doi.org/10.17617/3.7h.
Supplementary data are available at online.
要可靠地表征单个巨型单层囊泡（GUV）的膜孔边缘张力，需要在成百上千张图像中测量微米级大小的孔。手动执行此过程时，已证明该过程极其耗时，并且在不同用户和成像系统之间会产生不一致的结果。尚未有报道称有一款用户友好的软件可用于此类分析，能够快速处理并生成可重复的数据。
我们开发了一款软件（PoET），用于自动测量GUV的孔边缘张力。软件会自动执行所需的图像处理步骤以及孔动力学的表征，使用该软件可将分析时间减少30倍。我们通过比较不同膜组成和表面电荷的GUV的孔边缘张力，证明了该软件的适用性。该方法应用于电穿孔的GUV，但也适用于其他形成孔的方式。
完整的软件用Python实现，可在https://dx.doi.org/10.17617/3.7h上获取Windows版本。
补充数据可在网上获取。
