Bioinformatics Advance Access originally published online on November 5, 2004
Bioinformatics 2005 21(7):1278-1279; doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/bti120
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A Java tool for dynamic web-based 3D visualization of anatomy and overlapping gene or protein expression patterns
1Department of Biological Science, University of Calgary Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada
2Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Calgary Alberta T2N 1N4, Canada
*To whom correspondence should be addressed.
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Summary: The Gene Expression Viewer is a web-launched three-dimensional visualization tool, tailored to compare surface reconstructions of multi-channel image volumes generated by confocal microscopy or micro-CT.
Availability: Software is available on request from the authors and is free to academics.
Contact: pvize{at}ucalgary.ca
Supplementary information: Revisions and additional documentation to the Gene Expression Viewer are maintained at http://www.cbrbio.ucalgary.ca/3DModels and http://www.xenbase.org/3DModels. The idx3dIII Advanced Programming Interface is freely available for non-commercial use at http://www.idx3d.ch/
Gene or protein expression data provide information on when and where genes are activated. In addition to indicating the site of action, these data are critical for confirming predicted protein–protein interactions, potential ligand–receptor associations, gene regulatory networks and developmental targets. The localized expression of a gene or protein can be detected using systems that stain expressing tissues with a dye or with a fluorescent tag that can be visualized using fluorescent microscopy. A laser scanning confocal microscope collects fluorescent data by raster scanning an optical slice and a pinhole is used to exclude data outside of the optical slice. Through incrementally acquiring a series, or stack, of optical slices in the Z-plane 3D data sets can be created (Pawley, 1990). Within each plane data can be detected for a number of different channels, each reflecting the labelling of a target with a different form of fluor. Other imaging options are available, but at the present time confocal microscopy is the highest resolution and most widely used system (Ruffins et al., 2002).
GENXL is a JAVA applet which launches transparently from a web browser (Fig. 1). It requires a server capable of using the hyper-text transfer protocol to serve the application and geometry files. Three-dimensional (3D) projections are then software-rendered on the client computer using a close variation of the IDX3DIII Application Programming Interface (API) http://www.idx3d.ch/. The IDX3DIII API is free for non-commercial use and includes all source code. Designed for JAVA 1.1 compliancy, GENXL works on all JAVA 1.1.3 compliant web browsers. Performance does vary with different browsers and operating systems and the fastest performance is currently achieved using Internet Explorer running on Windows.
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Two formulae are specific to GENXL. They illustrate our use of integrated methods contained in the IDX3D III API source code. The algorithm for measuring the distance between two points on a surface is an approximation with an accuracy inversely proportional to the area of the two triangles coplanar with the points being measured. Distances are measured by applying the centroid of two triangles to a distance formula.
While the standard Euclidean metric L2 norm based on the Pythagorean theorem would be for an n-dimensional vector v = (v1, v2,...,v3), and two points P = (p1, p2,...,pn) and Q=(q1, q2,..., qn) the distance between them given as:
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The integration of both subtractive and additive colour arithmetic as surface attributes required some restructuring of the scan line rendering process to support a material shader methodology. Calls to the IDX3DIII renderlineP() function have been replaced with the new function renderLineShader(shader) function, with shader being the index number for the render method. A surface with properties associated with the Phong (1975) method of shading implemented by renderlineP() can be supplemented with custom methods which implement variations of linear and non-linear algorithms (Kay and Greenberg, 1979). For additive transparency we have utilized:
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Additive transparency allows overlaps between 3D expression domains to be easily visualized. In Fig. 1 this is illustrated by a screenshot depicting GENXL displaying two overlapping but distinct gene expression patterns. The first pattern appears green, the second red, and overlap is yellow. The application itself, including examples depicting immunofluorescence, in situ hybridization and microCT data, can be viewed at http://www.xenbase.org/3DModels/bioinformatics/.
The Gene Expression Viewers' ability to simultaneously display, reorient and organize by channel, multiple expression patterns provides a nearly instant method of comparing a multitude of 3D data varying by method of data acquisition, intended imaging objective, specimen and anatomy. Effectively, this has allowed our application to contribute to 3D expression comparisons of genes predicted to be involved in early kidney development and comparison of their spatial distribution at varying stages in early development. Expansion of our database of 3D gene expression patterns will permit novel gene expression patterns to be retrieved through an indexed anatomical atlas by species, stage of development, gene or protein. Our geometric projections are progressing towards the addressing of gene expression information in space and time in a comprehensive model, which in turn may allow computed virtual stages of development (where no volume data currently exists). We have begun expanding surface definition methods as the Gene Expression Viewers' current geometric projection techniques are functionally comparable to cutting edge hardware-dependent implementations for 3D visualization. The Gene Expression Viewer has already implemented experimental geometric visualizations utilizing a spline-based surface reconstruction (see Supplemental data). This will permit geometry detail to be increased and decreased based on the capabilities of the client workstation. Our spline-based implementations will be necessary for our approaches to warping dissimilar specimens and dynamic time-based visualizations.
The Gene Expression Viewer makes 3D visualization instantaneously accessible over the internet to the largest segment of modern computers, adding a convenient tool for collaborative efforts between laboratories and disciplines.
Received on July 16, 2004; revised on October 20, 2004; accepted on October 20, 2004
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Ruffins, S., Jacobs, R., Fraser, S. (2002) Towards a Tralfamadorian view of the embryo: multidimensional imaging of development. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol., 12, 580–586[CrossRef][ISI][Medline].
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