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RASP: Optimal Single Puncta Detection in Complex Cellular Backgrounds

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Repository DOI


Change log

Authors

paragon-plus: 6887203 
Brock, Emma E.; paragon-plus: 6933812 
Andrews, Rebecca; paragon-plus: 6933814 
Breiter, Jonathan C.; paragon-plus: 6933815 
Tian, Ru; paragon-plus: 6933817 

Abstract

Super-resolution and single-molecule microscopies have been increasingly applied to complex biological systems. A major challenge of these approaches is that fluorescent puncta must be detected in the low signal, high noise, heterogeneous background environments of cells and tissue. We present RASP, Radiality Analysis of Single Puncta, a bioimaging-segmentation method that solves this problem. RASP removes false-positive puncta that other analysis methods detect and detects features over a broad range of spatial scales: from single proteins to complex cell phenotypes. RASP outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in precision and speed using image gradients to separate Gaussian-shaped objects from the background. We demonstrate RASP’s power by showing that it can extract spatial correlations between microglia, neurons, and α-synuclein oligomers in the human brain. This sensitive, computationally efficient approach enables fluorescent puncta and cellular features to be distinguished in cellular and tissue environments, with sensitivity down to the level of the single protein. Python and MATLAB codes, enabling users to perform this RASP analysis on their own data, are provided as Supporting Information and links to third-party repositories.

Description

Publication status: Published

Keywords

Journal Title

The Journal of Physical Chemistry B

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1520-6106
1520-5207

Volume Title

128

Publisher

American Chemical Society
Sponsorship
Aligning Science Across Parkinson's (ASAP-000509)
Government of Canada (RGPIN-2022-05142)