Mytoe: Automatic analysis of mitochondrial dynamics

Abstract

We present Mytoe, a tool for analyzing mitochondrial morphology and dynamics from fluorescence microscope images. The tool provides automated quantitative analysis of mitochondrial motion by optical flow estimation and of morphology by segmentation of individual branches of the network-like structure of the organelles. Mytoe quantifies several features of individual branches, such as length, tortuosity and speed, and of the macroscopic structure, such as mitochondrial area and degree of clustering. We validate the methods and apply them to the analysis of sequences of images of U2OS human cells with fluorescently labeled mitochondria. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.