Luis Francisco Barbosa-Santillán
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María de los Angeles Calixto-Romo
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Juan Jaime Sánchez-Escobar
◽
Liliana Ibeth Barbosa-Santillán
Aim and Objective:
A common method used for massive detection of cellulolytic
microorganisms is based on the formation of halos on solid medium. However, this is a subjective
method and real-time monitoring is not possible. The objective of this work was to develop a method
of computational analysis of the visual patterns created by cellulolytic activity through artificial
neural networks description.
Materials and Methods:
Our method learns by an adaptive prediction model and automatically
determines when enzymatic activity on a chromogenic indicator such as the hydrolysis halo occurs.
To achieve this goal, we generated a data library with absorbance readings and RGB values of
enzymatic hydrolysis, obtained by spectrophotometry and a prototype camera-based equipment
(Enzyme Vision), respectively. We used the first part of the library to generate a linear regression
model, which was able to predict theoretical absorbances using the RGB color patterns, which
agreed with values obtained by spectrophotometry. The second part was used to train, validate, and
test the neural network model in order to predict cellulolytic activity based on color patterns.
Results:
As a result of our model, we were able to establish six new descriptors useful for the
prediction of the temporal changes in the enzymatic activity. Finally, our model was evaluated on
one halo from cellulolytic microorganisms, achieving the regional classification of the generated
halo in three of the six classes learned by our model.
Conclusion:
We assume that our approach can be a viable alternative for high throughput screening
of enzymatic activity in real time.