6th ESACP Congress, Heidelberg, April 7-11, 1999

A142
TIME-RESOLVED ANALYSIS AND VISUALIZATION OF DYNAMIC PROCESSES IN LIVING CELLS
Tvarusk W 1, Bentele M 1, Misteli T 2, Rudolf R 3, Kaether C 3, Gerdes HH 3, Spector DL 2, Eils R 1

1) Bioinformatics Group, Interdisciplinary Center of Scientific Computing, University of Heidelberg, Germany, 2) Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA, 3) Department Neurobiology, University Heidelberg, Germany

Recent development of in vivo microscopy techniques, including green fluorescent proteins (GFP), has allowed the visualization of a wide range of dynamic processes in living cells. For quantitative and visual interpretation of such processes, new concepts for time-resolved image analysis and continuous time-space visualization are required. Here we describe a versatile and fully automated approach consisting of four techniques, namely highly sensitive object detection, fuzzy logic based dynamic object tracking, computer graphical visualization, and measurement in time-space. Systematic model simulations were performed to evaluate the reliability of the automated object detection and tracking method. To demonstrate potential applications the method was applied to the analysis of the functional dynamics of nuclear compartments enriched in pre-mRNA splicing factors, of centromere motility during mitosis, and of rapid secretory membrane traffic.