Pitfalls of using confocal-microscopy based automated quantification of synaptic complexes in honeybee mushroom bodies (response to Peng and Yang 2016).

ABSTRACT: A recent study by Peng and Yang in Scientific Reports using confocal-microscopy based automated quantification of anti-synapsin labeled microglomeruli in the mushroom bodies of honeybee brains reports potentially incorrect numbers of microglomerular densities. Whereas several previous studies using visually supervised or automated counts from confocal images and analyses of serial 3D electron-microscopy data reported consistent numbers of synaptic complexes per volume, Peng and Yang revealed extremely low numbers differing by a factor of 18 or more from those obtained in visually supervised counts, and by a factor 22-180 from numbers in two other studies using automated counts. This extreme discrepancy is especially disturbing as close comparison of raw confocal images of anti-synapsin lab

SUBMITTER: Rossler W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5575136 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature