Computer-assisted beat-pattern analysis and the flagellar waveforms of bovine spermatozoa

Autor: Benjamin J. Walker, Shiva Phuyal, Kenta Ishimoto, Chih-Kuan Tung, Eamonn A. Gaffney
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Royal Society Open Science, Vol 7, Iss 6 (2020)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2054-5703
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.200769
Popis: Obstructed by hurdles in information extraction, handling and processing, computer-assisted sperm analysis systems have typically not considered in detail the complex flagellar waveforms of spermatozoa, despite their defining role in cell motility. Recent developments in imaging techniques and data processing have produced significantly improved methods of waveform digitization. Here, we use these improvements to demonstrate that near-complete flagellar capture is realizable on the scale of hundreds of cells, and, further, that meaningful statistical comparisons of flagellar waveforms may be readily performed with widely available tools. Representing the advent of high-fidelity computer-assisted beat-pattern analysis, we show how such a statistical approach can distinguish between samples using complex flagellar beating patterns rather than crude summary statistics. Dimensionality-reduction techniques applied to entire samples also reveal qualitatively distinct components of the beat, and a novel data-driven methodology for the generation of representative synthetic waveform data is proposed.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals