Automatic DNA sequencing for electrophoresis gels using image processing algorithms英文文献资料.docVIP

J. Biomedical Science and Engineering, 2011, 4, 523-528 JBiSE doi:10.4236/jbise.2011.48067 Published Online August 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jbise/). Automatic DNA sequencing for electrophoresis gels using image processing algorithms Jiann-Der Lee , Chung-Hsien Huang , Neng-Wei Wang , Chin-Song Lu 1 1 1 2 1 2 Department of Electrical Engineering, Chang Gung University, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, China; Department of Neurology, Chang Gung Memory Hospital, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan, China. Email: jdlee@.tw Received 14 November 2010; revised 25 December 2010; accepted 20 January 2011. ABSTRACT The gel electrophoresis exam consists of breaking a molecule into many fragments by the action of specific enzymes. These fragments are dispersed on a medium of polyacrylamide or agarose gel to which an electric field is applied. Each fragment has distinct electric charge and molecules weight, causing them to be displaced at different rates through the gel. After a period of time, the process is interrupted and the gel is stained so that it becomes possible to observe where the molecules stopped. Each stripe in the pattern is called a band. The set of bands generated by a single sample is called a lane. By analy- zing the DNA of a sample, it is possible to find similar genetic patterns, which may give support to the inclusion of an individual into a group of known features. The comparison between an unknown individual and already-known groups are achieved by submitting the DNA of individuals from each group to the same pro- cess. To make the analysis of DNA gel images more effi- cient and effective, digital image processing techniques are introduced to analyze the gel images. Firstly, the gel photographs, which are the half-products of laboratory experiments and