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Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Super-Resolution Live Cell Imaging of Subcellular Structures
Published on: January 13, 2021
qSR: a quantitative super-resolution analysis tool reveals the cell-cycle dependent organization of RNA Polymerase I
J O Andrews1, W Conway1, W-K Cho1
1Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA.
Abstract:
We present qSR, an analytical tool for the quantitative analysis of single molecule based super-resolution data. The software is created as an open-source platform integrating multiple algorithms for rigorous spatial and temporal characterizations of protein clusters in super-resolution data of living cells. First, we illustrate qSR using a sample live cell data of RNA Polymerase II (Pol II) as an example of highly dynamic sub-diffractive clusters. Then we utilize qSR to investigate the organization and dynamics of endogenous RNA Polymerase I (Pol I) in live human cells, throughout the cell cycle. Our analysis reveals a previously uncharacterized transient clustering of Pol I. Both stable and transient populations of Pol I clusters co-exist in individual living cells, and their relative fraction vary during cell cycle, in a manner correlating with global gene expression. Thus, qSR serves to facilitate the study of protein organization and dynamics with very high spatial and temporal resolutions directly in live cell.
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