Identifying biological landmarks using a novel cell measuring image analysis tool: Cell-o-Tape

Area of Science:

• Plant biology
• Cellular imaging
• Quantitative morphology

Background:

• Quantifying plant organ geometry at the cellular scale offers insights into structural organization.
• Manual measurement methods are low-throughput, subjective, and often replaced by simple cell counts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an automated tool for counting and measuring individual cells along files in microscopy images.
• To provide a flexible and intuitive method for extracting quantitative cellular geometric data.
• To objectively identify significant changes in cell length, such as the transition zone in plant roots.

Main Methods:

• Development of an ImageJ/Fiji macro named Cell-o-tape.
• Utilizes confocal laser scanning microscope images.
• Automated cell counting and measurement along defined cellular files.

Main Results:

• Cell-o-tape accurately locates cell walls.
• The tool detects significant changes in cell length along files.
• Provides objective estimation of transition zones, e.g., in Arabidopsis roots, with accuracy comparable to human experts.

Conclusions:

• Cell-o-tape is a highly accurate, open-source tool for cellular geometry quantification.
• It overcomes limitations of manual measurements, offering objective and high-throughput analysis.
• The tool is readily available online for the scientific community.