Morphometrics of complex cell shapes: lobe contribution elliptic Fourier analysis (LOCO-EFA).

ABSTRACT: Quantifying cell morphology is fundamental to the statistical study of cell populations, and can help unravel mechanisms underlying cell and tissue morphogenesis. Current methods, however, require extensive human intervention, are highly parameter sensitive, or produce metrics that are difficult to interpret biologically. We therefore developed a method, lobe contribution elliptical Fourier analysis (LOCO-EFA), which generates from digitalised two-dimensional cell outlines meaningful descriptors that can be directly matched to morphological features. This is shown by studying well-defined geometric shapes as well as actual biological cells from plant and animal tissues. LOCO-EFA provides a tool to phenotype efficiently and objectively populations of cells, here demonstrated by applying it

SUBMITTER: Sanchez-Corrales YE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5897594 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature