Data from: Cellects, a software to quantify cell expansion and motion

Automated quantification offers unique opportunities to study biological
phenomena, increasing reproducibility, replicability, accuracy, and
throughput, while reducing observer biases. We present Cellects, a tool to
quantify growth and motion in 2D. This software operates with image
sequences containing specimens growing and moving on an immobile flat
surface. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy to adjust the
quantification parameters to cover a wide range of species and conditions,
and includes tools to validate the results and correct mistakes if
necessary. The software provides the region covered by the specimens at
each point of time, as well as many geometrical descriptors that
characterize it. We validated Cellects with Physarum polycephalum, which
is particularly difficult to detect because of its complex shape and
internal heterogeneity. This validation covered five different conditions
with different background and lighting, and found Cellects to be highly
accurate in all cases. Cellects’ main strengths are its broad scope of
action, automated computation of a variety of geometrical descriptors,
easy installation and user-friendly interface.