Small flexible automated system for monitoring Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan based on active vision and image processing techniques
Abstract Traditionally Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan assays are performed by manually inspecting nematodes with a dissection microscope, which involves daily counting of live/dead worms cultured in Petri plates for 21–25 days. This manual inspection requires the screening of hundreds of worms to e...
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doaj-2a86df4ef0c749cea7d37f250e6c40452021-06-13T11:36:59ZengNature Publishing GroupScientific Reports2045-23222021-06-0111111110.1038/s41598-021-91898-6Small flexible automated system for monitoring Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan based on active vision and image processing techniquesJoan Carles Puchalt0Antonio-José Sánchez-Salmerón1Eugenio Ivorra2Silvia Llopis3Roberto Martínez4Patricia Martorell5Instituto de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de ValènciaInstituto de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de ValènciaInstituto de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de ValènciaCell Biology Laboratory/ADM Nutrition/Biopolis SL/Archer Daniels MidlandCell Biology Laboratory/ADM Nutrition/Biopolis SL/Archer Daniels MidlandCell Biology Laboratory/ADM Nutrition/Biopolis SL/Archer Daniels MidlandAbstract Traditionally Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan assays are performed by manually inspecting nematodes with a dissection microscope, which involves daily counting of live/dead worms cultured in Petri plates for 21–25 days. This manual inspection requires the screening of hundreds of worms to ensure statistical robustness, and is therefore a time-consuming approach. In recent years, various automated artificial vision systems have been reported to increase the throughput, however they usually provide less accurate results than manual assays. The main problems identified when using these vision systems are the false positives and false negatives, which occur due to culture media changes, occluded zones, dirtiness or condensation of the Petri plates. In this work, we developed and described a new C. elegans monitoring machine, SiViS, which consists of a flexible and compact platform design to analyse C. elegans cultures using the standard Petri plates seeded with E. coli. Our system uses an active vision illumination technique and different image-processing pipelines for motion detection, both previously reported, providing a fully automated image processing pipeline. In addition, this study validated both these methods and the feasibility of the SiViS machine for lifespan experiments by comparing them with manual lifespan assays. Results demonstrated that the automated system yields consistent replicates (p-value log rank test 0.699), and there are no significant differences between automated system assays and traditionally manual assays (p-value 0.637). Finally, although we have focused on the use of SiViS in longevity assays, the system configuration is flexible and can, thus, be adapted to other C. elegans studies such as toxicity, mobility and behaviour.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91898-6 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Joan Carles Puchalt Antonio-José Sánchez-Salmerón Eugenio Ivorra Silvia Llopis Roberto Martínez Patricia Martorell |
spellingShingle |
Joan Carles Puchalt Antonio-José Sánchez-Salmerón Eugenio Ivorra Silvia Llopis Roberto Martínez Patricia Martorell Small flexible automated system for monitoring Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan based on active vision and image processing techniques Scientific Reports |
author_facet |
Joan Carles Puchalt Antonio-José Sánchez-Salmerón Eugenio Ivorra Silvia Llopis Roberto Martínez Patricia Martorell |
author_sort |
Joan Carles Puchalt |
title |
Small flexible automated system for monitoring Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan based on active vision and image processing techniques |
title_short |
Small flexible automated system for monitoring Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan based on active vision and image processing techniques |
title_full |
Small flexible automated system for monitoring Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan based on active vision and image processing techniques |
title_fullStr |
Small flexible automated system for monitoring Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan based on active vision and image processing techniques |
title_full_unstemmed |
Small flexible automated system for monitoring Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan based on active vision and image processing techniques |
title_sort |
small flexible automated system for monitoring caenorhabditis elegans lifespan based on active vision and image processing techniques |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
series |
Scientific Reports |
issn |
2045-2322 |
publishDate |
2021-06-01 |
description |
Abstract Traditionally Caenorhabditis elegans lifespan assays are performed by manually inspecting nematodes with a dissection microscope, which involves daily counting of live/dead worms cultured in Petri plates for 21–25 days. This manual inspection requires the screening of hundreds of worms to ensure statistical robustness, and is therefore a time-consuming approach. In recent years, various automated artificial vision systems have been reported to increase the throughput, however they usually provide less accurate results than manual assays. The main problems identified when using these vision systems are the false positives and false negatives, which occur due to culture media changes, occluded zones, dirtiness or condensation of the Petri plates. In this work, we developed and described a new C. elegans monitoring machine, SiViS, which consists of a flexible and compact platform design to analyse C. elegans cultures using the standard Petri plates seeded with E. coli. Our system uses an active vision illumination technique and different image-processing pipelines for motion detection, both previously reported, providing a fully automated image processing pipeline. In addition, this study validated both these methods and the feasibility of the SiViS machine for lifespan experiments by comparing them with manual lifespan assays. Results demonstrated that the automated system yields consistent replicates (p-value log rank test 0.699), and there are no significant differences between automated system assays and traditionally manual assays (p-value 0.637). Finally, although we have focused on the use of SiViS in longevity assays, the system configuration is flexible and can, thus, be adapted to other C. elegans studies such as toxicity, mobility and behaviour. |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-91898-6 |
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