Getting Started

This section outlines the installation and basic usage of MEGA-FISH, guiding you through setting up your environment and processing spatial omics images.

Installation

We recommend installing MEGA-FISH in a virtual environment using either Anaconda or Miniconda to ensure dependency management and isolation. For installation instructions, please refer to the official guides for Anaconda or Miniconda.

GPU version

MEGA-FISH supports GPU acceleration on Linux systems and Windows PCs with WSL2. This feature enables significantly faster processing of large-scale spatial omics data.

Currently, MEGA-FISH requires CUDA Toolkit 11.8 for GPU acceleration. Ensure that your system has a compatible NVIDIA driver installed. Below are the installation steps for a system running Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS with CUDA 11.8 installed. For details on installing CUDA Toolkit 11.8, refer to the official CUDA installation guide.

Note: On Windows, WSL2 must be properly configured with a supported NVIDIA driver. Please refer to the WSL2 NVIDIA guide for more information.

  1. Create a conda environment and install the required packages.

    MEGA-FISH depends on Rapids and CuPy for GPU-accelerated computations. Below are the commands to set up the environment. For detailed instructions on Rapids installation, refer to the official Rapids website.

    conda create -n megafish-env python=3.11
conda activate megafish-env
conda install conda-libmamba-solver
conda config --set solver libmamba
conda install -c conda-forge mamba
mamba install -y -c rapidsai -c conda-forge -c nvidia rapids=24.06 cuda-version=11.8 cupy=13.3.0

  2. Install MEGA-FISH using PyPI:

    pip install megafish

CPU version

MEGA-FISH supports multi-core CPU parallel computation and is available on Linux, Windows, and macOS. Below are the installation steps for setting up MEGA-FISH on an Ubuntu 22.04.5 LTS system.

  1. Create a conda environment and install the necessary packages.

    The use of mamba ensures faster and more reliable dependency resolution:

    conda create -n megafish-env python=3.11
conda activate megafish-env
conda install conda-libmamba-solver
conda config --set solver libmamba
conda install -c conda-forge mamba
mamba install -y pyqt

  2. Install MEGA-FISH using PyPI:

    pip install megafish

Sample dataset

A SeqFISH image dataset used in this tutorial is available for download from Zenodo. This dataset captures mRNA of 6 genes in human IMR90 cells across 2 channels and is a downsampled version of images from Tomimatsu, K. et al., Nat Commun 15, 3657 (2024).

Dataset Overview:

The dataset is organized by cycle, subfolders inside the images folder. Each cycle folder holds 9 TIFF images named sequentially from 1.tif to 9.tif, arranged in a 3x3 tile configuration. Each tile image is a 4-dimensional array with dimensions (color, z, y, x) = (3, 3, 1024, 1024). The channels are structured as follows:

  • Channel 1: Hoechst (nuclei stain)

  • Channel 2: RNA channel 1

  • Channel 3: RNA channel 2

In addition, the dataset includes a stitched folder, which contains a pre-stitched 2D image, hcst_mip_stitched.tif. This image, with dimensions (3051, 3051), is used for tile-to-tile registration.

Folder Structure:

getting_started/
├── images/
│   ├── cycle1/
│   │   ├── 1.tif
│   │   ├── ...
│   │   └── 9.tif
│   ├── cycle2/
│   │   ├── 1.tif
│   │   ├── ...
│   │   └── 9.tif
│   └── cycle3/
│       ├── 1.tif
│       ├── ...
│       └── 9.tif
└── stitched/
    └── hcst_mip_stitched.tif

To use this dataset, download it from Zenodo and save it to a directory of your choice, for example: /home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/.

Processing

First, import MEGA-FISH and the necessary libraries into your Python script or Jupyter notebook.

import os
import megafish as mf

When running MEGA-FISH as a Python script, you must include the processing code within the if __name__ == '__main__': block. This ensures proper handling of parallel computation using the concurrent.futures module.

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Add your processing code here

Note: If you are using a Jupyter notebook, this step is not required.

Next, specify the analysis directory, sample name, Zarr file path, and key parameters such as image size and pixel dimensions. If analysis directory does not exist, create it first.

root_dir = "/home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/analysis/"
sample_name = "IMR90_SeqFISH"
zarr_path = os.path.join(root_dir, sample_name + ".zarr")

pitch = [0.1370, 0.0994, 0.0994]
n_cycle, n_tile_y, n_tile_x, n_z, n_y, n_x = 3, 3, 3, 3, 1024, 1024

Here, pitch defines the pixel size in micrometers for each dimension (z, y, x). n_cycle is the number of cycles, n_tile_y and n_tile_x are the number of tiles in the y and x directions, and n_z, n_y, and n_x are the pixel dimensions of the image.

In this tutorial, since the images are relatively small, using a GPU might increase computational overhead and slow down the processing. For optimal performance, CPU processing is recommended in this tutorial dataset. You can specify the resource settings as follows:

mf.config.set_resource(GPU=False, scheduler="processes")

Loading the dataset

This section explains how to load a sample dataset into MEGA-FISH for analysis.

  1. Specify the dataset directory and create a directory list

    The directory list is a CSV file that records the cycle directories in the dataset, which is used to generate an image information list. The following code creates a directory list by searching for cycle directories in the image directory.

    img_dir = "/home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/images/"
dirlist_path = os.path.join(root_dir, sample_name + "_directorylist.csv")
mf.load.make_dirlist(dirlist_path, img_dir)

This will generate a IMR90_SeqFISH_directorylist.csv file in the analysis directory with the following structure:

path

/home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/images/cycle1

/home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/images/cycle2

/home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/images/cycle3

  1. Generate an image information list

    The image information list is a CSV file that records the image paths and metadata (e.g., cycle, tile, and channel) for each group. The following code generates an image information list based on the directory list and specified parameters.

    groups = ["hcst", "rna1", "rna2"]
channels = [1, 2, 3]
scan_type = "row_right_down"
mf.load.make_imagepath_cYX_from_dirlist(
    zarr_path, groups, channels, n_cycle, n_tile_y, n_tile_x,
    scan_type, dirlist_path, ext=".tif")

    This will generate a IMR90_SeqFISH_imagepath.csv file in the analysis directory with the following structure:

    group

    cycle

    tile_y

    tile_x

    path

    channel

    hcst

    1

    1

    1

    /home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/images/cycle1/1.tif

    1

    hcst

    1

    1

    2

    /home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/images/cycle1/2.tif

    1

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    rna1

    1

    1

    1

    /home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/images/cycle1/1.tif

    2

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    …

    rna2

    3

    3

    3

    /home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/images/cycle3/9.tif

    3

    Note: If the image order in your dataset differs from the expected order, you can manually create the image path CSV file without using functions.

  2. Load the images into a Zarr file

    Convert the raw TIFF images into a Zarr file using the image information list.

    mf.load.tif_cYXzyx(zarr_path, n_z, n_y, n_x, tif_dims="zyxc")

Registration

This section describes how to align and register tiled images across different cycles.

  1. Convert the 3D image stack into 2D images

    Currently, MEGA-FISH only supports 2D image processing. Use maximum intensity projection to reduce the 3D image stack along the z-axis.

    groups = ["hcst", "rna1", "rna2"]
for group in groups:
    mf.process.projection(zarr_path, group)

  2. Calculate shifts between cycles for the same tile

    First, specify the parameters for SIFT (Scale-Invariant Feature Transform) and RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus) algorithms. These parameters are critical for robust feature matching and outlier rejection.

    sift_kwargs = {
    "upsampling": 1, "n_octaves": 8, "n_scales": 3, "sigma_min": 2,
    "sigma_in": 1, "c_dog": 0.01, "c_edge": 40, "n_bins": 12,
    "lambda_ori": 1.5, "c_max": 0.8, "lambda_descr": 6,
    "n_hist": 4, "n_ori": 8}
match_kwargs = {"max_ratio": 0.5}
ransac_kwargs = {
    "min_samples": 4, "residual_threshold": 10, "max_trials": 500}

    Note: For detailed information on the parameters, refer to the documentation of the following functions: skimage.feature.SIFT, skimage.feature.match_descriptors, skimage.measure.ransac.

    Next, calculate the shifts using the Hoechst channel as the reference.

    mf.register.shift_cycle_cYXyx(
    zarr_path, "hcst_mip", sift_kwargs, match_kwargs, ransac_kwargs)

  1. Load the stitched image and calculate tile shifts

    Load a pre-stitched image for accurate tile registration.

    Note: MEGA-FISH does not currently support automatic stitched image creation. You can use external tools such as the ImageJ plugin or Imaris Stitcher.

    stitched_dir = "/home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/stitched/"
stitched_path = os.path.join(stitched_dir, "hcst_mip_stitched.tif")
mf.load.stitched_tif(
    zarr_path, "stitched", stitched_path, n_tile_y, n_tile_x)

    Then, calculate the shifts for each tile and integrate these shifts with the cycle-wise shifts.

    mf.register.shift_tile_cYXyx(zarr_path, "hcst_mip", "stitched", 1000,
                             sift_kwargs, match_kwargs, ransac_kwargs)
mf.register.merge_shift_cYXyx(zarr_path, "hcst_mip")

  2. Generate a stitched image for each group across all cycles

    Using the computed shifts, create a large Zarr group for each channel (e.g., Hoechst, RNA channel 1, RNA channel 2) that combines all cycles into a single seamless image.

    groups = ["hcst_mip", "rna1_mip", "rna2_mip"]
for group in groups:
    mf.register.registration_cYXyx(
        zarr_path, group, "stitched", (1526, 1526))

    Note: It is recommended to adjust the chunk size based on the available memory capacity of your computer. Larger chunk sizes may improve performance but require more memory.

Segmentation

For segmentation, it is recommended to use external segmentation tools such as Cellpose or Ilastik. However, for demonstration purposes, this tutorial uses a simple watershed segmentation method. This method is effective for segmenting nuclei in well-separated cells and includes the following steps:

  1. Extract a first cycle from the sequential Hoechst image.

  2. Apply Gaussian blur to reduce noise and enhance nuclei boundaries.

  3. Binarize the image to create a mask.

  4. Perform watershed segmentation to identify individual nuclei.

  5. Refine the segmentation results by merging split labels and filling small holes.

  6. Save the segmentation results to a CSV file for downstream analysis.

The following code demonstrates the segmentation process:

# Select the slice from Hoechst in first cycle
mf.segment.select_slice(zarr_path, "hcst_mip_reg",
                        "cycle", 0, None, "_slc")

# Smooth the image of the nuclei using Gaussian blur
mf.process.gaussian_blur(zarr_path, "hcst_mip_reg_slc", 2)

# Binarize the image
mf.process.binarization(zarr_path, "hcst_mip_reg_slc_gbr", 110)

# Perform segmentation using the watershed method
mf.segment.watershed_label(zarr_path, "hcst_mip_reg_slc_gbr_bin", 50)

# Merge the segmentation results
mf.segment.merge_split_label(zarr_path, "hcst_mip_reg_slc_gbr_bin_wts")

# Fill holes in the segmentation results
mf.segment.fill_holes(zarr_path, "hcst_mip_reg_slc_gbr_bin_wts_msl")

# Save the segmentation label information to a CSV file
mf.segment.info_csv(zarr_path, "hcst_mip_reg_slc_gbr_bin_wts_msl_fil", pitch[1:])

Spot detection

RNA spot detection in MEGA-FISH involves two main steps: applying a Difference of Gaussians (DoG) filter to enhance spot-like structures and detecting local maxima to identify potential RNA spots. Below is an example workflow.

  1. Apply DoG filter and detect local maxima

    This step enhances spot-like features using a DoG filter and identifies potential RNA spots based on local maxima detection.

    NA = 1.4 # Numerical Aperture of the objective
wavelengths_um = [0.592, 0.671] # Emission wavelengths in micrometers
mean_pitch_yx = (pitch[1] + pitch[2]) / 2 # Average pixel size in the XY plane

group_names = ["rna1_mip_reg", "rna2_mip_reg"]
for group_name, wavelength_um in zip(group_names, wavelengths_um):
    dog_sd1, dog_sd2 = mf.seqfish.dog_sds(NA, wavelength_um, mean_pitch_yx)
    mf.seqfish.DoG_filter(zarr_path, group_name, dog_sd1,
                        dog_sd2, axes=(1, 2), mask_radius=9)

group_names = ["rna1_mip_reg_dog", "rna2_mip_reg_dog"]
for group_name, wavelength_um in zip(group_names, wavelengths_um):
    footprint = mf.seqfish.local_maxima_footprint(
        NA, wavelength_um, mean_pitch_yx)
    mf.seqfish.local_maxima(
        zarr_path, group_name, footprint, axes=(1, 2))

  2. Set intensity thresholds for detected spots

    To filter out false positives, apply intensity thresholds to the detected local maxima.

    groups = ["rna1_mip_reg_dog_lmx", "rna2_mip_reg_dog_lmx"]
thrs = [2.8, 1] # Intensity thresholds for each channel
for group, thr in zip(groups, thrs):
    mf.seqfish.select_by_intensity_threshold(zarr_path, group, threshold=thr)

  3. Generate the cell-by-gene expression matrix

    Aggregate the RNA spot counts across all channels and segments to create a cell-by-gene expression matrix. The final output is saved as a CSV file.

    groups = ["rna1_mip_reg_dog_lmx_ith", "rna2_mip_reg_dog_lmx_ith"]
for group in groups:
    mf.seqfish.count_spots(zarr_path, group,
                        "hcst_mip_reg_slc_gbr_bin_wts_msl")

# Summarize counts across all channels and save the cell-by-gene expression matrix
groups = ["rna1_mip_reg_dog_lmx_ith_cnt",
        "rna2_mip_reg_dog_lmx_ith_cnt"]
group_seg = "hcst_mip_reg_slc_gbr_bin_wts_msl_seg"
channels = [2, 3]
genename_path = "/home/UserName/megafish_sample/getting_started/IMR90_SeqFISH_genename.csv"
group_out = "rna_cnt"
mf.seqfish.count_summary(
    zarr_path, groups, group_seg, group_out, channels, genename_path)

Note:

  • The NA and wavelengths_um parameters should match the imaging system used to acquire the data.

  • Intensity thresholds (thrs) may need to be adjusted depending on the dataset to optimize spot detection.

  • The final CSV file contains the cell-by-gene expression matrix, integrating data across all channels. This matrix can be used for downstream analysis, such as differential gene expression or clustering.