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Autori principali: Darnige, Thierry, Midtvedt, Daniel, Baillou, Renaud, Estay, Benjamin Perez, Wu, Changsong, Guen, Alex Le, Volpe, Giovanni, Clement, Eric
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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Accesso online:https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20764
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author Darnige, Thierry
Midtvedt, Daniel
Baillou, Renaud
Estay, Benjamin Perez
Wu, Changsong
Guen, Alex Le
Volpe, Giovanni
Clement, Eric
author_facet Darnige, Thierry
Midtvedt, Daniel
Baillou, Renaud
Estay, Benjamin Perez
Wu, Changsong
Guen, Alex Le
Volpe, Giovanni
Clement, Eric
contents How microorganisms respond to and interact with their environment can vary significantly from individual to individual, which can have important microbiological and ecological implications. However, most microscopy techniques can only observe motile microorganisms for short times because of their limited fields of view. Using Lagrangian tracking, a single microorganism can be followed in 3D, potentially indefinitely, allowing to decipher individual phenotypical traits. Current Lagrangian tracking methods use the fluorescence signal emitted by the microorganism as feedback to keep it in focus. However, over long times, epifluorescent imaging can induce photobleaching and photodamage, and importantly, not all microorganisms can easily be made fluorescent. Additionally, traditional algorithms used in feedback loops to determine microorganism position are prone to errors, especially in optically complex media. Here, we present a faster, more reliable, and versatile Lagrangian tracking method that uses deep learning to determine the 3D position of the microorganism. This new method demonstrates enhanced accuracy and speed in tracking fluorescent bacteria with fluorescence microscopy also in optically complex media. Furthermore, we track bacteria with other microscopy modalities, such as brightfield microscopy -- for example, this enables us to track magnetotactic bacteria, which cannot be made fluorescent without degrading their magnetotactic properties. These novel capabilities allow to extract previously inaccessible quantitative information, significantly advancing the study of microorganism behavior -- and thus opening new avenues for research in complex biological and ecological systems.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2603_20764
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Deep learning-enhanced Lagrangian 3D Tracking of motile microorganisms
Darnige, Thierry
Midtvedt, Daniel
Baillou, Renaud
Estay, Benjamin Perez
Wu, Changsong
Guen, Alex Le
Volpe, Giovanni
Clement, Eric
Biological Physics
How microorganisms respond to and interact with their environment can vary significantly from individual to individual, which can have important microbiological and ecological implications. However, most microscopy techniques can only observe motile microorganisms for short times because of their limited fields of view. Using Lagrangian tracking, a single microorganism can be followed in 3D, potentially indefinitely, allowing to decipher individual phenotypical traits. Current Lagrangian tracking methods use the fluorescence signal emitted by the microorganism as feedback to keep it in focus. However, over long times, epifluorescent imaging can induce photobleaching and photodamage, and importantly, not all microorganisms can easily be made fluorescent. Additionally, traditional algorithms used in feedback loops to determine microorganism position are prone to errors, especially in optically complex media. Here, we present a faster, more reliable, and versatile Lagrangian tracking method that uses deep learning to determine the 3D position of the microorganism. This new method demonstrates enhanced accuracy and speed in tracking fluorescent bacteria with fluorescence microscopy also in optically complex media. Furthermore, we track bacteria with other microscopy modalities, such as brightfield microscopy -- for example, this enables us to track magnetotactic bacteria, which cannot be made fluorescent without degrading their magnetotactic properties. These novel capabilities allow to extract previously inaccessible quantitative information, significantly advancing the study of microorganism behavior -- and thus opening new avenues for research in complex biological and ecological systems.
title Deep learning-enhanced Lagrangian 3D Tracking of motile microorganisms
topic Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.20764