Watershed-Based Protein Spot Detection in 2DGE Images

Abstract

2D gel electrophoresis (2DGE) plays an important role in proteomics. It can separate proteins effectively with their pI values and molecular weights. Proteomics researchers needed to identify interested protein spots by examining the gel. This is time-consuming and labor extensive. It is desired that the computer can analyze the proteins automatically by first detecting and quantifying the protein spots in the digitized 2DGE images. In this paper, we re-investigate the use of the watershed algorithm in segmenting the protein spots from the varying background. However, the watershed algorithm often produces an over-segmented result. Thus, marker-based methods are used to improve the segmentation result. The result is compared with that generated by a commercial software tool – ImageMaster. It is demonstrated that our system can detect protein spots more precisely.