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Microbiology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

ScanLag: High-throughput Quantification of Colony Growth and Lag Time

DOI: 10.3791/51456-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Build and configure a high-throughput colony scanning system
  • ✓ Execute automated image acquisition using ScanLag software
  • ✓ Analyze colony growth images to quantify lag time and growth rate
  • ✓ Discriminate between slow growth and extended lag phase in single variants
Protocol

ScanLag is a high-throughput method for measuring the delay in growth, namely lag time, as well as the growth rate of colonies for thousands of cells in parallel. Screening using ScanLag enables the discrimination between long lag-time and slow growth at the level of a single variant.

Difficulty
intermediate
Total time
~4–6 hours (setup + scanning + analysis per experiment batch)

Steps

1
Assemble the ScanLag hardware setup

Build and configure the scanning apparatus including imaging optics, stage positioning, and environmental control. Ensure all components are aligned and functional before proceeding.

▶ 01:18
2
Perform automated colony scanning via software

Use the ScanLag Scanning Manager to define imaging parameters, set plate positions, and execute high-throughput automated acquisition of colony images in parallel across thousands of cells.

▶ 02:24
3
Process and analyze acquired colony images

Apply image segmentation and analysis algorithms to detect colony boundaries, extract growth trajectories, and calculate lag time and growth rate metrics for each variant.

▶ 03:57
4
Interpret quantitative growth and lag-phase results

Review output data to distinguish between colonies with prolonged lag phase versus those exhibiting inherently slow growth rates, enabling phenotypic discrimination at single-variant resolution.

▶ 05:52
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