On mobility analysis of functional sites from time lapse microscopic image sequences of living cell nucleus

Abstract

Recent research in biology has indicated correlations between the movement patterns of functional sites (such as replication sites in DNA) and zones of genetic activity within a nucleus. A detailed study and analysis of the motion dynamics of these sites can reveal an interesting insight into their role in DNA replication and function. In this paper, we propose a suite of novel techniques to determine, analyze, and interpret the mobility patterns of functional sites. Our algorithms are based on interesting ideas from theoretical computer science and database theory and provide for the first time the tools to interpret the seemingly stochastic motion patterns of the functional sites within the nucleus in terms of a set of tractable 'patterns' which can then be analyzed to understand their biological significance. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.