PROJECT TITLE :

Towards automatic image analysis and assessment of the multicellular apoptosis process

ABSTRACT:

Apoptotic programmed cell death (PCD) could be a elementary side of developmental maturation. However, the authors' understanding of apoptosis, particularly in the multi-cell regime, is incomplete as a result of of the difficulty of identifying dying cells by conventional methods. Real-time in vivo microscopy of Drosophila, an glorious model system for finding out the PCD during development, has been used to uncover plausible collective apoptosis at the tissue level, although the dynamic regulation of the process remains to be deciphered. During this work, the authors have developed a picture-analysis program that may quantitatively analyse time-lapse microscopy of live tissues undergoing apoptosis with a fluorescent nuclear marker, and subsequently extract the spatiotemporal patterns of multicellular response. The program can process a massive range of cells (>103) automatically tracked across sets of image frames. It is applied to characterise the apoptosis of Drosophila wing epithelium at eclosion. Using the natural anatomic structures as reference, the authors establish dynamic patterns in the progression of PCD at intervals the Drosophila tissues. The results not only make sure the previously observed collective multi-cell behaviour from a quantitative perspective, however additionally reveal a plausible role played by the anatomic structures, such as the wing veins, within the PCD propagation across the Drosophila wing.