( Novel capability of EagleSight soft...)Counting Colonies or Plaques Directly from Images of Agar Plates

Novel capability of EagleSight software version 3.1

Michelle Cayouette Jane Moores Michael Steege Alan Orr
Stratagene Cloning Systems, Inc.

With the introduction of EagleSight software version 3.1, researchers have the ability to automatically count bacterial colonies and plaques on agar plates. Researchers can use the versatile features of the Colony/Plaque Counting function, such as flexible background-division settings, adjustable detection thresholds and user-definable constraints for minimum size of colonies and/or plaques, to obtain precise single- and two-color counts from various types of agar plates. In order to ensure accurate counting, images should be acquired in a manner that provides the best contrast between colonies or plaques and background. The image type should also be defined correctly prior to analysis.

The Eagle Eye II still video system is a digital imaging system used to document and analyze data from a variety of laboratory experiments. The systems software contains many tools that aid in acquiring and processing images.^1,2 Calculations of molecular weight, integrated density and concentration can be made from images of stained nucleic acid or protein gels,³ chemiluminescent experiments⁴ or other applications. The analysis portion of EagleSight software version 3.1 has been enhanced with new colony- and plaque-counting capabilities. With these capabilities, researchers are able to count colonies and plaques directly from images of agar plates.

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The Colony/Plaque Counting function of EagleSight software version 3.1 is designed to provide quantitative information from images of plates quickly and
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