A detection-based framework for the analysis of recycling in TIRF microscopy

Endocytosis/recycling and exocytosis are mechanisms conserved through evolution allowing cells to communicate with their external medium. In order to study these dynamic processes, the present work proposes a patch-based method for detecting recycling or exocytotic events at the Plasma membrane in fast TIRF microscopy combined with the computation of normalized temporal representations of those events. Evaluation, performed on TIRF sequences showing Transferrin receptor (TfR) recycling, validates a high detection rate fully compatible with an automatic data extraction and analysis of the plasma membrane recycling process.