Root system architecture and especially its plasticity in acclimation to variable environments play a crucial role in the ability of plants to explore and acquire efficiently soil resources and ensure plant productivity. Non-destructive measurement methods are indispensable to quantify dynamic growth traits. For closing the phenotyping gap, we have developed an automated phenotyping platform, GrowScreen-Agar, for non-destructive characterization of root and shoot traits of plants grown in transparent agar medium. The phenotyping system is capable to phenotype root systems and correlate them to whole plant development of up to 280 Arabidopsis plants within 15 min. The potential of the platform has been demonstrated by quantifying phenotypic differences within 78 Arabidopsis accessions from the 1001 genomes project. The chosen concept ‘plant-to-sensor’ is based on transporting plants to the imaging position, which allows for flexible experimental size and design. As transporting causes mechanical vibrations of plants, we have validated that daily imaging, and consequently, moving plants has negligible influence on plant development. Plants are cultivated in square Petri dishes modified to allow the shoot to grow in the ambient air while the roots grow inside the Petri dish filled with agar. Because it is common practice in the scientific community to grow Arabidopsis plants completely enclosed in Petri dishes, we compared development of plants that had the shoot inside with that of plants that had the shoot outside the plate. Roots of plants grown completely inside the Petri dish grew 58% slower, produced a 1.8 times higher lateral root density and showed an etiolated shoot whereas plants whose shoot grew outside the plate formed a rosette. In addition, the setup with the shoot growing outside the plate offers the unique option to accurately measure both, leaf and root traits, non-destructively, and treat roots and shoots separately. Because the GrowScreen-Agar system can be moved from one growth chamber to another, plants can be phenotyped under a wide range of environmental conditions including future climate scenarios. In combination with a measurement throughput enabling phenotyping a large set of mutants or accessions, the platform will contribute to the identification of key genes.

中文翻译：

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GrowScreen-Agar 平台能够识别琼脂生长植物的根和芽生长性状的表型多样性。


根系结构，特别是其适应变化环境的可塑性，对于植物有效探索和获取土壤资源并确保植物生产力的能力起着至关重要的作用。无损测量方法对于量化动态生长特性是必不可少的。为了缩小表型分析的差距，我们开发了一个自动化表型分析平台 GrowScreen-Agar，用于对透明琼脂培养基中生长的植物的根和芽性状进行非破坏性表征。表型分析系统能够在 15 分钟内对根系统进行表型分析，并将其与多达 280 株拟南芥植物的整个植物发育相关联。该平台的潜力已通过量化 1001 基因组计划的 78 个拟南芥种质内的表型差异得到证明。所选择的“植物到传感器”概念基于将植物运输到成像位置，这允许灵活的实验规模和设计。由于运输会引起植物的机械振动，我们已经验证了日常成像以及移动植物对植物发育的影响可以忽略不计。植物在经过改造的方形培养皿中培养，使芽在周围空气中生长，而根在充满琼脂的培养皿内生长。由于科学界的常见做法是将拟南芥植物完全封闭在培养皿中，因此我们将芽在培养皿内的植物的发育与芽在培养皿外的植物的发育进行了比较。完全在培养皿内生长的植物的根部生长速度减慢 58%，产生的侧根密度高出 1.8 倍，并显示出黄化的芽，而芽在培养皿外生长的植物则形成莲座丛。 此外，芽在板外生长的设置提供了独特的选择，可以非破坏性地准确测量叶和根的性状，并分别处理根和芽。由于 GrowScreen-Agar 系统可以从一个生长室移至另一个生长室，因此可以在包括未来气候情景在内的各种环境条件下对植物进行表型分析。与能够对大量突变体或种质进行表型分析的测量通量相结合，该平台将有助于关键基因的识别。