Kinetic Analysis of the Motility of Giant Virus-Infected Amoebae Using Phase-Contrast Microscopic Images

Sho Fukaya; Keita Aoki; Mio Kobayashi; Masaharu Takemura

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2019.03014

Kinetic Analysis of the Motility of Giant Virus-Infected Amoebae Using Phase-Contrast Microscopic Images

Front Microbiol. 2020 Jan 17:10:3014. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.03014. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Sho Fukaya¹, Keita Aoki¹, Mio Kobayashi², Masaharu Takemura^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Biology Education, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
² Laboratory of Biology, Department of Liberal Arts, Faculty of Science, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Tracking cell motility is a useful tool for the study of cell physiology and microbiology. Although phase-contrast microscopy is commonly used, the existence of optical artifacts called "halo" and "shade-off" have inhibited image analysis of moving cells. Here we show kinetic image analysis of Acanthamoeba motility using a newly developed computer program named "Phase-contrast-based Kinetic Analysis Algorithm for Amoebae (PKA3)," which revealed giant-virus-infected amoebae-specific motilities and aggregation profiles using time-lapse phase-contrast microscopic images. This program quantitatively detected the time-dependent, sequential changes in cellular number, size, shape, and direction and distance of cell motility. This method expands the potential of kinetic analysis of cultured cells using versatile phase-contrast images. Furthermore, this program could be a useful tool for investigating detailed kinetic mechanisms of cell motility, not only in virus-infected amoebae but also in other cells, including cancer cells, immune response cells, and neurons.

Keywords: Acanthamoeba; giant virus; image analysis; kinetic analysis; phase-contrast microscopic image; time-lapse.