Detecting structural heterogeneity in single-molecule localization microscopy data

Nat Commun. 2021 Jun 18;12(1):3791. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24106-8.

Abstract

Particle fusion for single molecule localization microscopy improves signal-to-noise ratio and overcomes underlabeling, but ignores structural heterogeneity or conformational variability. We present a-priori knowledge-free unsupervised classification of structurally different particles employing the Bhattacharya cost function as dissimilarity metric. We achieve 96% classification accuracy on mixtures of up to four different DNA-origami structures, detect rare classes of origami occuring at 2% rate, and capture variation in ellipticity of nuclear pore complexes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • DNA / chemistry*
  • Nanostructures / chemistry
  • Nuclear Pore / chemistry*
  • Nucleic Acid Conformation*
  • Signal-To-Noise Ratio
  • Single Molecule Imaging / methods*

Substances

  • DNA