Automatic analysis of cryo-electron tomography using computer vision and machine learning*

Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is an emerging technology for the 3D visualization of structural organizations and interactions of subcellular components at near-native state and sub-molecular resolution. Tomograms captured by cryo-ET contain heterogeneous structures representing the complex and dynamic subcellular environment. Since the structures are not purified or fluorescently labeled, the spatial organization and interaction between both the known and unknown structures can be studied in their native environment. The rapid advances of cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) have generated abundant 3D cellular imaging data. However, the systematic localization, identification, segmentation, and structural recovery of the subcellular components require efficient and accurate large-scale image analysis methods. We developed and adapted a suite of computer vision and machine learning methods for such analysis.