title: High-throughput screening of high Monascus pigment-producing strain based on digital image processing.
abstract: This work proposed a new method which applied image processing and support vector machine (SVM) for screening of mold strains. Taking Monascus as example, morphological characteristics of Monascus colony were quantified by image processing. And the association between the characteristics and pigment production capability was determined by SVM. On this basis, a highly automated screening strategy was achieved. The accuracy of the proposed strategy is 80.6 %, which is compatible with the existing methods (81.1 % for microplate and 85.4 % for flask). Meanwhile, the screening of 500 colonies only takes 20-30 min, which is the highest rate among all published results. By applying this automated method, 13 strains with high-predicted production were obtained and the best one produced as 2.8-fold (226 U/mL) of pigment and 1.9-fold (51 mg/L) of lovastatin compared with the parent strain. The current study provides us with an effective and promising method for strain improvement.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100039, China.
authors.forename: Meng-lei
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Mathematics and System Science, Xinjiang University, Urumchi, 830046, China.
authors.forename: Zhi-xia
authors.initials: ZX
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China. hzchen@ipe.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Hong-zhang
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D001331:Automation; D057166:High-Throughput Screening Assays; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008148:Lovastatin / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism; D032741:Monascus / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D010860:Pigments, Biological / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000378:metabolism; D060388:Support Vector Machine
chemical_list: D010860:Pigments, Biological; D008148:Lovastatin
keywords: Automatized operation; Image processing; Monascus ruber; Pigment; Support vector machine