Imaging Real-Time Gene Expression in Living Systems with Single-Transcript Resolution: Single mRNA Particle Tracking with ImageJ-Based Analysis

Amber L. Wells; John S. Condeelis; Robert H. Singer; Daniel Zenklusen

doi:10.1101/pdb.prot4872

Protocol

Imaging Real-Time Gene Expression in Living Systems with Single-Transcript Resolution: Single mRNA Particle Tracking with ImageJ-Based Analysis

¹ Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
² Gruss-Lipper Biophotonics Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY 10461, USA

↵³Corresponding author (rhsinger{at}aecom.yu.edu)

INTRODUCTION

This protocol describes the use of ImageJ software (freely available from NIH) to analyze particle dynamics in a cell using time-lapse movie frames or image stacks of fluorescent mRNA particles. Maximum intensity projections and kymographs are produced.