Análisis automático de la posición y del número de plásmidos en una célula bacteriana

Abstract

Plasmids are small chromosomes with the ability to pass from one cell to another. Recent advances in the study of its behavior shows that one of the main ways to assure its long-term survival is to adapt themselves to the cellular division mechanism of the host cell, assuring that at least one copy of the plasmid remains on each of the replicas generated in the cell-division process. Usually these studies have been made by hand by analyzing the images of a microscope and measuring the distance between each plasmid and the centre of the cell in which it is immersed. However, this manual process is slow and tedious, and reduces the applicability of the method to large image data sets. This communication shows an automated tool for cell segmentation based on a pre-emphasis filtering and parametric curve fitting that is able to accurately segment cells in microscopic images, count the plasmids inside it and extract its positions inside the cell.