Ml. Cooper et al., LANE TRACKING SOFTWARE FOR 4-COLOR FLUORESCENCE-BASED ELECTROPHORETICGEL IMAGES, PCR methods and applications, 6(11), 1996, pp. 1110-1117
Software to track sample lanes automatically in four-color, fluorescen
ce-based, electrophoretic gel images has been developed for applicatio
n in large-scale DNA sequencing projects. Lanes and lane boundaries ar
e tracked by analyzing a first difference approximation to the gradien
t of a vertically integrated and processed ''brightness'' profile. Ini
tially lanes are located in a region of the gel image selected for goo
d horizontal lane spacing and signal strength. The software uses model
s of expected lane and interlane spacing and lateral lane behavior to
maintain accurate tracking on imperfect gels. In areas where intensity
-based tracking is difficult, interpixel column correlation is also us
ed to locate and define lane features. Summary statistics and compress
ed-in-time images are generated for user evaluation of tracking perfor
mance. The software developed has been tested successfully on gel imag
es with degradations including significant horizontal lane motion (cur
ving) and image artifacts, and is now in full-scale use in our sequenc
ing projects.