Characterize Collective Lysosome Heterogeneous Dynamics in Live Cell with a Space- and Time-Resolved Method

Area of Science:

• Cell Biology
• Biophysics
• Microscopy

Background:

• Collective cell migration and bacteria swarming are well-studied phenomena.
• Quantitative characterization of collective organelle movement at the subcellular level remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To quantitatively characterize collective lysosomal behavior in live cells.
• To develop a novel method for analyzing spatiotemporal dynamics of organelle motion.

Main Methods:

• Lysosomes in live cells were tagged with a fluorescent probe.
• Wide-field microscopy was used for imaging.
• The particle collective analysis (PECAN) method, based on single particle tracking, was developed and validated.

Main Results:

• Thousands of lysosomal trajectories were analyzed per cell.
• Lysosomes exhibit collective movement with spatially heterogeneous and temporally long-term correlated dynamics.
• Continuous wavelet analysis indicated collective lysosomal oscillations in mouse neural cells.

Conclusions:

• The PECAN method provides a robust workflow for characterizing collective lysosomal motion.
• This approach can benefit research in organelle-mediated drug delivery and cell activity profiling.