Embryonic stages: morphology, timing, and variance in the toad Bombina orientalis

1978 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 1540-1545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Sussman ◽  
T. W. Betz

A Staged series (n = 25–476} with time data for Bombina orientalis embryonic development is presented. Stages for Bombina and Rana pipiens seem identical except that approximately 50% of opercular closures are symmetrical in Bombina. Counting numbers of embryos at a stage at regular intervals allowed mathematical interpolation of the average time of stage change. A single systematic curve fit the average time per stage of embryonic development, while the increase with time in variance per stage of development was primarily linear. It is possible that the increasing complexity of morphological interstage changes causes increases in the interstage interval and variance per stage over time. The reported method of arriving al a staged series for a previously undocumented species seems more efficient than time-lapse photography. The unusually easy maintenance and dependability or Bombina, contrasting with some amphibians, suggest its use where others have been less practical.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weijie Chen ◽  
Jay X. Tang ◽  
Sridhar Mani

Abstract Bacterial swarming refers to a rapid spread, with coordinated motion, of flagellated bacteria on a semi-solid surface1. There has been extensive study on this particular mode of motility among microbiologists and biophysicists because of its interesting biological and physical properties (e.g. enhanced antibiotic resistance2, turbulent collective motion3). The existing equipment for recording swarm expansion rate can easily go beyond tens of thousands dollars4, yet the conditions are not accurately controlled, resulting in large variations across the assays. Here, we report a reliable protocol to perform reproducible bacterial swarming assays and an inexpensive way to record and quantify the swarming activity by time-lapse photography. This novel protocol consists of three main parts: 1) building a “homemade”, environment-controlled photographing incubator; 2) performing bacterial swarming assay; 3) taking serial photos over time and calculating the swarming rate. The homemade incubator is economical, easy to operate, and has wide applications. In fact, this system can be applied for any slow evolving biological process that needs to be monitored by camera under a controlled environment.


PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2120 ◽  
Author(s):  
William W. Deacy ◽  
William B. Leacock ◽  
Lisa A. Eby ◽  
Jack A. Stanford

Accurately estimating population sizes is often a critical component of fisheries research and management. Although there is a growing appreciation of the importance of small-scale salmon population dynamics to the stability of salmon stock-complexes, our understanding of these populations is constrained by a lack of efficient and cost-effective monitoring tools for streams. Weirs are expensive, labor intensive, and can disrupt natural fish movements. While conventional video systems avoid some of these shortcomings, they are expensive and require excessive amounts of labor to review footage for data collection. Here, we present a novel method for quantifying salmon in small streams (<15 m wide, <1 m deep) that uses both time-lapse photography and video in a model-based double sampling scheme. This method produces an escapement estimate nearly as accurate as a video-only approach, but with substantially less labor, money, and effort. It requires servicing only every 14 days, detects salmon 24 h/day, is inexpensive, and produces escapement estimates with confidence intervals. In addition to escapement estimation, we present a method for estimating in-stream salmon abundance across time, data needed by researchers interested in predator--prey interactions or nutrient subsidies. We combined daily salmon passage estimates with stream specific estimates of daily mortality developed using previously published data. To demonstrate proof of concept for these methods, we present results from two streams in southwest Kodiak Island, Alaska in which high densities of sockeye salmon spawn.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ermanno Cordelli ◽  
Paolo Soda ◽  
Giulio Iannello

Abstract Background Biological phenomena usually evolves over time and recent advances in high-throughput microscopy have made possible to collect multiple 3D images over time, generating $$3D+t$$ 3 D + t (or 4D) datasets. To extract useful information there is the need to extract spatial and temporal data on the particles that are in the images, but particle tracking and feature extraction need some kind of assistance. Results This manuscript introduces our new freely downloadable toolbox, the Visual4DTracker. It is a MATLAB package implementing several useful functionalities to navigate, analyse and proof-read the track of each particle detected in any $$3D+t$$ 3 D + t stack. Furthermore, it allows users to proof-read and to evaluate the traces with respect to a given gold standard. The Visual4DTracker toolbox permits the users to visualize and save all the generated results through a user-friendly graphical user interface. This tool has been successfully used in three applicative examples. The first processes synthetic data to show all the software functionalities. The second shows how to process a 4D image stack showing the time-lapse growth of Drosophila cells in an embryo. The third example presents the quantitative analysis of insulin granules in living beta-cells, showing that such particles have two main dynamics that coexist inside the cells. Conclusions Visual4DTracker is a software package for MATLAB to visualize, handle and manually track $$3D+t$$ 3 D + t stacks of microscopy images containing objects such cells, granules, etc.. With its unique set of functions, it remarkably permits the user to analyze and proof-read 4D data in a friendly 3D fashion. The tool is freely available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19AEn0TqP-2B8Z10kOavEAopTUxsKUV73?usp=sharing


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 3122
Author(s):  
Srujana Neelam ◽  
Audrey Lee ◽  
Michael A. Lane ◽  
Ceasar Udave ◽  
Howard G. Levine ◽  
...  

Since opportunities for spaceflight experiments are scarce, ground-based microgravity simulation devices (MSDs) offer accessible and economical alternatives for gravitational biology studies. Among the MSDs, the random positioning machine (RPM) provides simulated microgravity conditions on the ground by randomizing rotating biological samples in two axes to distribute the Earth’s gravity vector in all directions over time. Real-time microscopy and image acquisition during microgravity simulation are of particular interest to enable the study of how basic cell functions, such as division, migration, and proliferation, progress under altered gravity conditions. However, these capabilities have been difficult to implement due to the constantly moving frames of the RPM as well as mechanical noise. Therefore, we developed an image acquisition module that can be mounted on an RPM to capture live images over time while the specimen is in the simulated microgravity (SMG) environment. This module integrates a digital microscope with a magnification range of 20× to 700×, a high-speed data transmission adaptor for the wireless streaming of time-lapse images, and a backlight illuminator to view the sample under brightfield and darkfield modes. With this module, we successfully demonstrated the real-time imaging of human cells cultured on an RPM in brightfield, lasting up to 80 h, and also visualized them in green fluorescent channel. This module was successful in monitoring cell morphology and in quantifying the rate of cell division, cell migration, and wound healing in SMG. It can be easily modified to study the response of other biological specimens to SMG.


1953 ◽  
Vol s3-94 (28) ◽  
pp. 369-379
Author(s):  
M. M. SWANN

1. Developing eggs of the sea-urchin Psammechinus miliaris were subjected to carbon monoxide inhibition, which was controlled by changing from green to white light. The behaviour of the eggs was recorded by time-lapse photography. 2. If inhibition is applied before the eggs enter mitosis, their first cleavage is delayed by a time which is roughly equal to the period of the inhibition. 3. If the inhibition is applied when the cells have already entered mitosis, they complete mitosis and cleave with little or no delay, but their second cleavage is delayed by a time which is roughly equal to the period of the inhibition. 4. It is suggested that the necessary energy for the second mitosis and cleavage is being stored up during the first mitosis and cleavage, and that this energy store operates like a reservoir which is continually being filled but siphons out when it is full. Once the energy has siphoned out, it carries mitosis and cleavage through, even though the reservoir is not filling up because of carbon monoxide inhibition.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document