Introduction

Microbial colony growth can serve as a useful readout in assays for studying complex genetic interactions or the effects of chemical compounds. Although computational tools for acquiring quantitative measurements of microbial colonies have been developed, their utility can be compromised by inflexible input image requirements, non-trivial installation procedures, or complicated operation. Here, we present the Spotsizer software tool for automated colony size measurements in images of robotically arrayed microbial colonies. Spotsizer features a convenient graphical user interface (GUI), has both single-image and batch-processing capabilities, and works with multiple input image formats and different colony grid types. We demonstrate how Spotsizer can be used for high-throughput quantitative analysis of fission yeast growth. The user-friendly Spotsizer tool provides rapid, accurate, and robust quantitative analyses of microbial growth in a high-throughput format. Spotsizer is freely available at https://data.csiro.au/dap/landingpage?pid=csiro:15330 under a proprietary CSIRO license.

Publications

  1. Spotsizer: High-throughput quantitative analysis of microbial growth.
    Cite this
    Bischof L, Převorovský M, Rallis C, Jeffares DC, Arzhaeva Y, Bähler J, 2016-10-01 - BioTechniques

Credits

  1. Leanne Bischof
    Developer

    CSIRO Digital Productivity, North Ryde, Australia

  2. Martin Převorovský
    Developer

    Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment and Institute of Healthy Ageing

  3. Charalampos Rallis
    Developer

    Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment and Institute of Healthy Ageing

  4. Daniel C Jeffares
    Developer

    Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment and Institute of Healthy Ageing

  5. Yulia Arzhaeva
    Developer

    CSIRO Digital Productivity, North Ryde, Australia

  6. Jürg Bähler
    Investigator

    Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment and Institute of Healthy Ageing

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Summary
AccessionBT001622
Tool TypeApplication
Category
PlatformsLinux/Unix
TechnologiesR
User InterfaceTerminal Command Line
Download Count0
Submitted ByJürg Bähler