Quantifying cell polarities in confocal images using 3D wall meshes

Guillaume Cerutti (1, 2) , Carlos Galvan Ampudia (2) , Jonathan Legrand (2, 1) , Christophe Godin (1, 2) , Teva Vernoux (2)

1 MOSAIC - Simulation et Analyse de la morphogenèse in siliCo
2 RDP - Reproduction et développement des plantes

Polarized transport of signaling molecules, such as the phytohormone auxin, is a core process for the establishment of gradients involved in the patterning of multicellular plant tissues. Cell-to-cell polarity of transport can result from the differential deposition of efflux carriers on the membranes at the interface between cells, as for the pin-formed1 (PIN1) auxin transporter. Quantifying such sub-cellular information in whole organ microscopy images constitutes a real challenge. In this work, we propose a method that computes polarities at the level of cell-to-cell interfaces starting from standard resolution confocal images and using a 3D geometric representation of cell walls. A robust estimation of spatial fluorescence distribution around cell walls allows quantifying polarity with a fair level of confidence, and opens the way for the automated analysis of polar transport at tissue scale.

Domaines: Traitement des images [eess.IV]; Géométrie algorithmique [cs.CG]; Biologie du développement

Guillaume Cerutti, Carlos Galvan Ampudia, Jonathan Legrand, Christophe Godin, Teva Vernoux. Quantifying cell polarities in confocal images using 3D wall meshes. IAMPS 2019 - 7th International Workshop on Image Analysis Methods in the Plant Sciences, Jul 2019, Bron, France. pp.1-2. ⟨hal-02176398⟩