Analysis of viral surfing based on fluorescence microscopy imaging and automatic tracking

Ordered movement of virus particles along cell filopodia before cell entry known as viral surfing is an important pathway for cell infection. To quantitatively analyze the process of viral surfing, tracking of viruses over time in fluorescent time-lapse microscopy images is required. We have developed an automatic approach for tracking single surfing virus particles. The approach combines probabilistic tracking of virus particles with a novel approach for segmentation of cell filopodia which is used to discriminate surfing virus particles. The approach was successfully applied to synthetic images as well as live cell microscopy images.