Faculty Collaboration Database

SynPAnal: software for rapid quantification of the density and intensity of protein puncta from fluorescence microscopy images of neurons. PLoS One 2014;9(12):e115298

Date

12/23/2014

Pubmed ID

25531531

Pubmed Central ID

PMC4274056

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0115298

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-84919798286 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   40 Citations

Abstract

Continuous modification of the protein composition at synapses is a driving force for the plastic changes of synaptic strength, and provides the fundamental molecular mechanism of synaptic plasticity and information storage in the brain. Studying synaptic protein turnover is not only important for understanding learning and memory, but also has direct implication for understanding pathological conditions like aging, neurodegenerative diseases, and psychiatric disorders. Proteins involved in synaptic transmission and synaptic plasticity are typically concentrated at synapses of neurons and thus appear as puncta (clusters) in immunofluorescence microscopy images. Quantitative measurement of the changes in puncta density, intensity, and sizes of specific proteins provide valuable information on their function in synaptic transmission, circuit development, synaptic plasticity, and synaptopathy. Unfortunately, puncta quantification is very labor intensive and time consuming. In this article, we describe a software tool designed for the rapid semi-automatic detection and quantification of synaptic protein puncta from 2D immunofluorescence images generated by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The software, dubbed as SynPAnal (for Synaptic Puncta Analysis), streamlines data quantification for puncta density and average intensity, thereby increases data analysis throughput compared to a manual method. SynPAnal is stand-alone software written using the JAVA programming language, and thus is portable and platform-free.

Author List

Danielson E, Lee SH

Author

Sang H. Lee PhD Professor in the Pharmacology and Toxicology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Animals
Cells, Cultured
Cluster Analysis
Embryo, Mammalian
Hippocampus
Microscopy, Fluorescence
Neurons
Proteins
Rats
Software
User-Computer Interface