Fungal Feature Tracker (FFT)

Fungal Feature Tracker (FFT) quantifies morphological and growth features of filamentous fungi from image data to enable objective, quantitative phenotypic measurements.

Key Features:

• Conidiation quantification: Automatically quantifies conidiation from image data.
• Conidia morphology: Measures conidia morphological features from images.
• Spore dimensions (length and width): Measures spore length and width directly from images.
• Mycelial attributes: Quantifies mycelial growth area, number of hyphal tips, and total hyphal length.
• Trap detection and counting: Detects and counts traps formed by nematode-trapping fungi.
• Adaptable structure identification: Can be adapted to identify and quantify other unique fungal structures across species.
• Time-series growth tracking: Tracks mycelial growth over time from image sequences.
• Multi-scale and multi-resolution support: Accommodates various scales and resolutions of images and experimental conditions.
• Strain- and species-level quantification: Quantifies features at both strain and species levels.
• Image input from basic imaging devices: Operates on images captured using basic imaging devices.

Scientific Applications:

• Genetics: Provides quantitative phenotypes for genetic analyses of filamentous fungi.
• Cell biology: Enables measurement of hyphal and spore morphology for cell biological studies.
• Ecology and evolution: Supports comparative morphological and growth analyses across species and environments.
• Chemistry: Supplies quantitative morphological data relevant to chemical and biochemical investigations.
• Nematode-trapping fungi research: Quantifies trap formation and abundance in nematode-trapping species.
• Comparative strain and species analysis: Facilitates comparison of growth and morphological traits between strains and species.

Methodology:

Automated image analysis of images captured with basic imaging devices to quantify conidiation, conidia morphology, spore length and width, mycelial growth area, hyphal tip counts, total hyphal length, trap detection and counting, and time-series growth tracking, with support for varying scales, resolutions, species, and experimental conditions.