One-to-one correlation between spatial mode 2 and individual morphological features

Determine whether any single morphological feature among the 85 CellProfiler-derived features exhibits a significant one-to-one correlation with the temporal coefficients of spatial mode 2 obtained from proper orthogonal decomposition of kernel density estimates in the 2D UMAP-reduced morphospace for EGF-induced EMT in MDA-MB-468 cells, or establish that no such feature exists.

Background

The paper decomposes the spatiotemporal kernel density of cells in a 2D UMAP-reduced morphospace using proper orthogonal decomposition. Spatial mode 1 strongly correlates with several interpretable morphological features and the phosphorylation dynamics of EGFR, providing clear physical meaning.

In contrast, the authors report that spatial mode 2 captures transient dynamics during EMT reversal but lacks significant correlation with any single morphological feature, potentially due to increased morphological diversity and irregular shapes. This leaves open whether any single feature can explain spatial mode 2 or if composite descriptors are required.