Abstract Detail
Emerging Technologies Yazdanbakhsh, Nima [1], Fisahn, Joachim [1]. Development of a Robot-Based Platform Applied to Simultaneous Root Growth Profiling of Seedlings Growing in a Petri Dish. A newly developed platform is described which allows automatic detection of root growth characteristics for several seedlings simultaneously with high spatial and temporal resolution. A computer controlled positioning unit moves a Petri dish in small increments and enables continuous screening of the surface under a binocular microscope. Detection of the root tip is achieved by applying thresholds on image pixel data and verifying the neighbourhood for each dark point. Not as the default detection method, image subtraction is applied to detect the growing root tip from any permanent dark object in the background. The growth parameters are visualized as position over time or growth rate over time graphs and averaged over days and light-dark periods by our newly developed software package, as well as a 24 hour growth behavior. Proof of the developed system is provided by application to Arabidopsis starch mutants with severely altered root growth pattern. The results show dramatic decrease of growth rate during dark period in case of sex and pgm mutants, while the wild type col0 seedlings continue growing with almost the same growth rate as during light period.
Application of this system will enable to unravel fundamental questions in plant physiology in an unprecedented manner. In particular, determinants of root growth and thus plant performance can be investigated with highest spatial resolution down to the single cell level. In combination with various mutated plants and the ability to modify the growth media, the system will provide a high throughput detector for improvement of plant nutritional parameters and due to its capacity to simultaneously observe many roots it will furthermore enable a high throughput screening of root growth mutants.
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1 - Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology, am muhlenberg 1, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
Keywords:
root growth
Image processing.
Presentation Type: Plant Biology Abstract
Session: P
Location: Exhibit Hall (Northeast, Southwest & Southeast)/Hilton
Date: Sunday, July 8th, 2007
Time: 8:00 AM
Number: P44017
Abstract ID:1812 | 