Deep learning-based enhancement of fluorescence labeling for accurate cell lineage tracing during embryogenesis.

Journal: Bioinformatics (Oxford, England)
PMID:

Abstract

MOTIVATION: Automated cell lineage tracing throughout embryogenesis plays a key role in the study of regulatory control of cell fate differentiation, morphogenesis and organogenesis in the development of animals, including nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. However, automated cell lineage tracing suffers from an exponential increase in errors at late embryo because of the dense distribution of cells, relatively low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and imbalanced intensity profiles of fluorescence images, which demands a huge amount of human effort to manually correct the errors. The existing image enhancement methods are not sensitive enough to deal with the challenges posed by the crowdedness and low signal-to-noise ratio. An alternative method is urgently needed to assist the existing detection methods in improving their detection and tracing accuracy, thereby reducing the huge burden for manual curation.

Authors

  • Zelin Li
    Department of Electrical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China.
  • Dongying Xie
    Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 999077, China.
  • Yiming Ma
    School of Kinesiology, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai 200438, China.
  • Cunmin Zhao
    Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong 999077, China.
  • Sicheng You
    Centre for Intelligent Multidimensional Data Analysis, Hong Kong Science Park, Hong Kong 999077, China.
  • Hong Yan
  • Zhongying Zhao
    Department of Biology, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, 999077, China. zyzhao@hkbu.edu.hk.