Controlled Environment Phenotyping

Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Missouri

The Automated controlled-environment phenotyping at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Bellwether Foundation Phenotyping Facility

The Bellwether Foundation Phenotyping Facility is a climate controlled 70 m2 growth house with a conveyor belt system for moving plants to and from fluorescence, color, and near infrared imaging cabinets. This automated, high-throughput platform allows repeated non-destructive time-series image capture and multi-parametric analysis of 1,140 plants in a single experiment. You can read more about the Danforth Plant Sciences Center Bellwether Foundation Phenotyping Facility on the DDPSC website.

The Scanalyzer 3D platform at the Bellwether Foundation Phenotyping Facility at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center consists of multiple digital imaging chambers connected to the Conviron growth house by a conveyor belt system, resulting in a continuous imaging loop. Plants are imaged from the top and/or multiple sides, followed by digital construction of images for analysis.

• RGB imaging allows visualization and quantification of plant color and structural morphology, such as leaf area, stem diameter and plant height.

• NIR imaging enables visualization of water distribution in plants in the near infrared spectrum of 900–1700 nm.

• Fluorescent imaging uses red light excitation to visualize chlorophyll fluorescence between 680 – 900 nm. The system is equipped with a dark adaptation tunnel preceding the fluorescent imaging chamber, allowing the analysis of photosystem II efficiency.

The LemnaTec software suite is used to program and control the Scanalyzer platform, analyze the digital images and mine resulting data. Data and images are saved and stored on a secure server for further review or reanalysis.

Experiments LT1A (TM015) and LT1B (TM016)

Duration: 10 days on LemnaTec platform

Experimental Design:

• 3 replicates of 190 BAP lines were grown in a randomized complete block design

• Watering regimes = 30% FC and 100% FC

• Drought conditions were imposed 10 days after planting

• Plants were imaged daily for 10 days (11-20 DAP) and sampled at 20 days after planting

• Experiment was repeated twice to phenotype the full BAP (Reps 1A and 1B)