(176ac) Integrative Cellular and Nuclear Dynamics in Single-Cell Imaging Analysis

Various subcellular activities, such as protrusion and detachment are part of the process of cell migration. The molecular mechanisms of these subcellular activities have been elucidated. However, there is so far no method that can assess the contributions of these subcellular activities to the global cell migration pattern of a given cell type. Hence, we develop a powerful approach based on CN correlations that can quantitatively profile the cell migration patterns of a given cell type in terms of assembled subcellular activities. In this way, we link migration data at the cellular level with underlying molecular mechanisms. The CN correlation profile is found to uniquely and consistently represent the cell migration pattern of each cell type probed. It can clearly reveal the effects of molecular perturbations, such as Y27632 and Cdc42 knockdown on each subcellular migratory activity. As a result, the CN correlation approach serves as a cell dynamic descriptor that can extract comprehensive quantitative data from cell migration videos for use in integrative biological analysis.