Automatic method for caveolar structure detection and intensity distribution analysis from microscopy images

Fluorescent fusion proteins of caveolin oligomerize to form plasma membrane pits, called caveolae. Amount of caveolin protein in a pit can be estimated by fluorescence intensity of the pit in microscopy image. In this study an automatic method is introduced for pit recognition, intensity measurement and intensity distribution parameter estimation. Dots are recognised and separated from non-caveolar structures. Intensities are measured with a new automatic method, which is capable of estimating intensities from all the recognised pits. Intensity distribution is cleaned up from outliers and modelled with a mixture model of normal distributions. Optimal parameter set of mixture model is searched automatically with a genetic algorithm.