Early development of xenopus laevis a laboratory manual

Here we describe a protocol for in vivo time-lapse imaging of complete dendritic arbors from individual neurons in the brains of anesthetized tadpoles with two-photon microscopy and data analysis of the time series of 3D dendritic arbors. For data analysis, we focus on dynamic analysis of reconstructed neuronal filaments using a customized open source computer program we developed 4D SPA , which allows aligning and matching of 3D neuronal structures across different time points with greatly improved speed and reliability.

File converters are provided to convert reconstructed filament files from commercial reconstruction software to be used in 4D SPA. The program and user manual are publicly accessible and operate through a graphical user interface on both Windows and Mac OSX. Supplemental Material is available for this article at cshprotocols. Terms of Service. Abstract In vivo time-lapse imaging of complete dendritic arbor structures in tectal neurons of Xenopus laevis tadpoles has served as a powerful in vivo model to study activity-dependent structural plasticity in the central nervous system during early development.

Footnotes From the Xenopus collection, edited by Hazel L. This Article Published in Advance March 31, , doi: Article Category Protocol. Publish with us. Contact us. Related Articles: Open Access. CellBio Vol. DOI: Open Access. Applied Mathematics Vol. Advances in Materials Physics and Chemistry Vol. World Journal of Engineering and Technology Vol. Creative Education Vol.