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Figure 1 | Genome Biology

Figure 1

From: High-throughput analysis of spatio-temporal dynamics in Dictyostelium

Figure 1

Automated image acquisition and phenotyping of clonal populations. (a) Over 2,000 insertional mutant clones were subjected to parallel culture and phenotyping using the flow chart shown here. (b) The gantry robotic system. The darkfield optics are positioned below the samples, the digital camera above. (c) Snapshots of movies from wild-type AX4 cells at representative stages of development. Images were captured every 40 sec from each well for 10.5 h after plating for a total of 800 frames. Later stages of morphogenesis were then followed for 28.5 h by bright-field illumination. During this period, images were captured at 127-sec intervals, also for a total of 800 frames from each well. The images in the first column were obtained from a 16.8 mm × 12.6 mm area by averaging five frames taken approximately 66 msec apart for noise reduction. Successive averaged frames were then subtracted to obtain the wave images in the second column (3 and 5 h). Bright-field optics were used for the second half of the imaging session to follow slug motion (11 h). After the run was over, the final culminant morphology was checked under a dissecting microscope (48 h). (d) The wavelet portrait. For the first 10.5 h, a time course of strength of the signal oscillating at the specified periodicity s was obtained from averaged wavelet transformations of pixel intensities as a function of time (see main text for details). Wavelet power spectrum is color coded, and the slow increase in frequency, then abrupt termination, followed by long-period features caused by cell streaming and territory formation, are indicated by arrows.

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