A Versatile Phenotyping System and Analytics Platform Reveals Diverse Temporal Responses to Water Availability in Setaria.

Phenotyping has become the rate-limiting step in using large-scale genomic data to understand and improve agricultural crops. Here, the Bellwether Phenotyping Platform for controlled-environment plant growth and automated multimodal phenotyping is described. The system has capacity for 1140 plants, which pass daily through stations to record fluorescence, near-infrared, and visible images. Plant Computer Vision (PlantCV) was developed as open-source, hardware platform-independent software for quantitative image analysis. In a 4-week experiment, wild Setaria viridis and domesticated Setaria italica had fundamentally different temporal responses to water availability. While both lines produced similar levels of biomass under limited water conditions, Setaria viridis maintained the same water-use efficiency under water replete conditions, while Setaria italica shifted to less efficient growth. Overall, the Bellwether Phenotyping Platform and PlantCV software detected significant effects of genotype and environment on height, biomass, water-use efficiency, color, plant architecture, and tissue water status traits. All ∼ 79,000 images acquired during the course of the experiment are publicly available.

High Content Imaging and Analysis Enable Quantitative In Situ Assessment of CYP3A4 Using Cryopreserved Differentiated HepaRG Cells.

High-throughput imaging-based hepatotoxicity studies capable of analyzing individual cells in situ hold enormous promise for drug safety testing but are frequently limited by a lack of sufficient metabolically competent human cells. This study examined cryopreserved HepaRG cells, a human liver cell line which differentiates into both hepatocytes and biliary epithelial cells, to determine if these cells may represent a suitable metabolically competent cellular model for novel High Content Analysis (HCA) applications. Characterization studies showed that these cells retain many features characteristic of primary human hepatocytes and display significant CYP3A4 and CYP1A2 induction, unlike the HepG2 cell line commonly utilized for HCA studies. Furthermore, this study demonstrates that CYP3A4 induction can be quantified via a simple image analysis-based method, using HepaRG cells as a model system. Additionally, data demonstrate that the hepatocyte and biliary epithelial subpopulations characteristic of HepaRG cultures can be separated during analysis simply on the basis of nuclear size measurements. Proof of concept studies with fluorescent cell function reagents indicated that further multiparametric image-based assessment is achievable with HepaRG. In summary, image-based screening of metabolically competent human hepatocyte models cells such as HepaRG offers novel approaches for hepatotoxicity assessment and improved drug screening tools.

Multiparametric High Content Analysis for assessment of neurotoxicity in differentiated neuronal cell lines and human embryonic stem cell-derived neurons.

The potential for adverse neurotoxic reactions in response to therapeutics and environmental hazards continues to prompt development of novel cell-based assays to determine neurotoxic risk. A challenge remains to characterize and understand differences between assays and between neuronal cellular models in their responses to neurotoxicants if scientists are to determine the optimal model, or combination of models, for neurotoxicity screening. Most studies to date have focused on developmental neurotoxicity applications. This study reports the development of a robust multiparameter High Content Analysis (HCA) assay for neurotoxicity screening in three differentiated neuronal cell models - SH-SY5Y, PC12 and human embryonic stem cell-derived hN2™ cells. Using a multiplexed detection reagent panel (Hoechst nuclear stain; antibodies against ßIII-Tubulin and phosphorylated neurofilament subunit H, and Mitotracker(®) Red CMXRos), a multiparametric HCA assay was developed and used to characterize a test set of 36 chemicals. HCA data generated were compared to data generated using MTT and LDH assays under the same assay conditions. Data showed that multiparametric High Content Analysis of differentiated neuronal cells is feasible, and represents a highly effective method for obtaining large quantities of robust data on the neurotoxic effects of compounds compared with cytotoxicity assays like MTT and LDH. Significant differences were observed between the responses to compounds across the three cellular models tested, illustrating the heterogeneity in responses to neurotoxicants across different cell types. This study provides data strongly supporting the use of cellular imaging as a tool for neurotoxicity assessment in differentiated neuronal cells, and provides novel insights into the neurotoxic effects of a test set of compounds upon differentiated neuronal cell lines and human embryonic stem cell-derived neurons.