Fly-QMA

Fly-QMA automates quantitative mosaic analysis in Drosophila imaginal discs by segmenting cell membranes or nuclei and annotating clones to enable comparison of RNA and protein expression across distinct clonal subpopulations.

Key Features:

• Segmentation: Segments cell membranes or nuclei from tissue images.
• Clone annotation: Annotates clonal subpopulations within tissues for quantitative analysis.
• Unsupervised spatial annotation: Implements an unsupervised annotation algorithm that leverages spatial context to determine the genetic identity of each cell.
• Imaging modality support: Operates on confocal microscopy images of Drosophila imaginal discs.
• Expression quantification: Enables quantitative comparison of RNA and protein expression levels between distinct clonal subpopulations.
• Validation: Validated using both real and synthetic datasets across a variety of conditions.
• Platform integration: Forms part of the NU FlyEye platform.

Scientific Applications:

• Quantitative mosaic analysis (QMA): Performs QMA in Drosophila imaginal discs to analyze genetic mosaics.
• Comparative gene expression: Compares RNA and protein expression between clonal subpopulations in the Drosophila eye epithelium to study gene expression during eye development.
• Clonal identity mapping: Determines the genetic identity of individual cells within tissues using spatial-context annotation.
• Image-analysis validation: Provides validated segmentation and annotation methods for evaluation with real and synthetic datasets.

Methodology:

Segmentation of cell membranes or nuclei from confocal microscopy images, unsupervised annotation algorithm leveraging spatial context to assign genetic identity to cells, and validation on real and synthetic datasets.