Project

Our project aims to obtain a collection of quantitative information about cell division dynamics in early Caenorhabditis elegans embryos when each of all essential embryonic genes is silenced individually by RNA interference (RNAi). The information is obtained by combining four-dimensional differential contrast interference (DIC) microscopy and computer image processing (Hamahashi et al. 2007). The information collection provides novel opportunities for developing quantitative and computational approaches towards understanding animal development.

References

Yasuda, T., Bannai, H., Onami, S., Miyano, S., and Kitano, H. (1999). Towards automatic construction of cell-lineage of C. elegans from Nomarski DIC microscope images. Genome Inform. 10, 144-154. [PubMed]

Onami, S., Hamahashi, S., Nagasaki, M., Miyano, S., and Kitano, H. (2001). Automatic aquisition of cell lineage through 4D microscope and analysis of early C. elegans embryogenesis. in Foundations of Systems Biology, H. Kitano, ed. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), pp.39-55.

Hamahashi, S., Onami, S., and Kitano, H. (2005). Detection of nuclei in 4D Nomarski DIC microscope images of early Caenorhabditis elegans embryos using local image entropy and object tracking. BMC Bioinformatics 6, 125. [PubMed]

Hamahashi, S., Kitano, H., and Onami, S. (2007). A system for measuring cell division patterns of early Caenorhabditis elegans embryos by using image processing and object tracking. Systems Comput. Jpn. 38(11), 12-24.

Kyoda, K., Adachi, E., Masuda, E., Nagai, Y., Suzuki, Y., Oguro, T., Urai, M., Arai, R., Furukawa, M., Shimada, K., Kuramochi, J., Nagai, E. and Onami, S. (2013). WDDD: Worm Developmental Dynamics Database. Nucleic Acids Res. 41, D732-D737. [Open Access]

Kyoda, K., Adachi, E., Kuramochi, J., Shimada, K., Nagai, E., Furukawa, M., Arai, R., Urai, M., Masuda, E., Suzuki, Y., Nagai, Y., Oguro, T., Fujita, M., and Onami, S. (2012). Quantitative cell division dynamics in RNAi-treated C. elegans embryos. Submitted.