Image analysis of transmission electron micrographs of citrus greening bacterium and chilli veinal mottle virus

A TEM imaging result would be a black and white filmnegative, which needs to be processed. A work flow to scan and analyze such negatives was developed using a Personal Computer with a top illuminated scanner. The 9×6.5 cm TEM negatives and 35 mm TEM negatives were scanned at 1200 dpi and were saved as TIFF, jpg, raw and png files. Using ImageJ the samples were false colored to bring out features using Lookup Tables based on their image densities. Using this method color or black and white negative (CAT, X-ray, and MRI) can be digitized and analyzed. Even though recent TEM and SEM have digital printout facilities as the bulk of the existing imaging systems in India use film, this method of scanning and analysis we have described will help in digitizing archival films and help in the digital storage, analysis and transmission and will be of use in any lab using scans.