scholarly journals Automated Mini-Channel Platform for Studying Plant Root Environments

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin F. Kreis ◽  
Sangjin Ryu
Keyword(s):  
Root Growth ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Plant Root ◽  
3D Printer ◽  
Soil Environment ◽  
Local Soil ◽  
Seedling Roots ◽  
Corn Seedling ◽  
Automated Platform ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Plants are crucial to our lives because they provide us with building materials, oxygen, and food. A season’s crop yield can be significantly affected by local environmental factors. In particular, improving fundamental understanding of plant root interactions with their local soil environment, or rhizosphere, will help improve crop yield. Studying such interactions is challenging because roots are underground, making it difficult to observe interactions and to manipulate the local soil environment. The goal of this study was to develop an automated mini-channel platform to investigate how plant roots respond to changes in their environment using corn as a model plant. Considering the size of corn seedling roots, mini-channel devices were fabricated in soft lithography using master molds produced with a 3D printer and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Our use of a 3D printer instead of photolithography allowed for a broader range of PDMS mold designs, such as including embedded rubber gaskets built into the mold. Then, corn seedlings were grown inside the transparent mini-channel devices, and they were found to consume an observable amount of nitrate over time. Image processing was employed to measure the contour length of the roots for quantitative characterization of root growth. Then, an automated platform was developed to measure the growth rate of the corn seedling roots and the consumed nitrate over time. The automated platform maintained the level of growth medium in the channel device, and was equipped with a digital camera to image the root growing in the channel, electrochemical sensors to measure changes in nitrate concentration in the channel, and sensors to measure temperature and humidity. Therefore, the platform could automatically measure root growth while simultaneously measuring root environment. The platform’s adaptable design, simple fabrication, and low cost make it simple to replicate and use to study different plants and environmental stimuli.

Propionate as the preferred carbon source to produce IAA in B. subtilis: comparative flux analysis using five carbon sources

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freddy Castillo Alfonso ◽  
Juan Gabriel Vigueras Ramírez ◽  
Luis Manuel Rosales Colunga ◽  
Alberto del Monte Martínez ◽  
Roberto Olivares Hernández
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Source ◽  
Root Growth ◽  
Crop Yield ◽  
Indoleacetic Acid ◽  
Plant Root ◽  
Carbon Sources ◽  
Flux Analysis ◽  
Genus Bacillus

3-indoleacetic acid (IAA) is a phytohormone that promotes plant root growth, improving the use of nutrients and crop yield and it is been reported that bacteria of the genus Bacillus...

scholarly journals High throughput phenotyping of root growth dynamics, lateral root formation, root architecture and root hair development enabled by PlaRoM

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (11) ◽  
pp. 938 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nima Yazdanbakhsh ◽  
Joachim Fisahn
Keyword(s):  
Root Growth ◽  
Growth Kinetics ◽  
Lateral Root ◽  
Root Architecture ◽  
Imaging Techniques ◽  
Plant Root ◽  
Primary Root ◽  
Growth Media ◽  
Root Extension ◽  
Lateral Root Development

Plant organ phenotyping by non-invasive video imaging techniques provides a powerful tool to assess physiological traits and biomass production. We describe here a range of applications of a recently developed plant root monitoring platform (PlaRoM). PlaRoM consists of an imaging platform and a root extension profiling software application. This platform has been developed for multi parallel recordings of root growth phenotypes of up to 50 individual seedlings over several days, with high spatial and temporal resolution. PlaRoM can investigate root extension profiles of different genotypes in various growth conditions (e.g. light protocol, temperature, growth media). In particular, we present primary root growth kinetics that was collected over several days. Furthermore, addition of 0.01% sucrose to the growth medium provided sufficient carbohydrates to maintain reduced growth rates in extended nights. Further analysis of records obtained from the imaging platform revealed that lateral root development exhibits similar growth kinetics to the primary root, but that root hairs develop in a faster rate. The compatibility of PlaRoM with currently accessible software packages for studying root architecture will be discussed. We are aiming for a global application of our collected root images to analytical tools provided in remote locations.

scholarly journals ACORBA: Automated workflow to measure Arabidopsis thaliana root tip angle dynamic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nelson BC Serre ◽  
Matyas Fendrych
Keyword(s):  
Plant Root ◽  
Automated Image Analysis ◽  
Root Tip ◽  
Spatiotemporal Resolution ◽  
Bending Angle ◽  
Root Angle ◽  
Root Gravitropism ◽  
Microscopy Data ◽  
Automated Software ◽  
Over Time

Plants respond to the surrounding environment in countless ways. One of these responses is their ability to sense and orient their root growth toward the gravity vector. Root gravitropism is studied in many laboratories as a hallmark of auxin-related phenotypes. However, manual analysis of images and microscopy data is known to be subjected to human bias. This is particularly the case for manual measurements of root bending as the selection lines to calculate the angle are set subjectively. Therefore, it is essential to develop and use automated or semi-automated image analysis to produce reproducible and unbiased data. Moreover, the increasing usage of vertical-stage microscopy in plant root biology yields gravitropic experiments with an unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. To this day, there is no available solution to measure root bending angle over time for vertical-stage microscopy. To address these problems, we developed ACORBA (Automatic Calculation Of Root Bending Angles), a fully automated software to measure root bending angle over time from vertical-stage microscope and flatbed scanner images. Moreover, the software can be used semi-automated for camera, mobile phone or stereomicroscope images. ACORBA represents a flexible approach based on both traditional image processing and deep machine learning segmentation to measure root angle progression over time. By its automated nature, the workflow is limiting human interactions and has high reproducibility. ACORBA will support the plant biologist community by reducing time and labor and by producing quality results from various kinds of inputs.

scholarly journals Imaging local soil kinematics during the first days of maize root growth in sand

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Floriana Anselmucci ◽  
Edward Andò ◽  
Gioacchino Viggiani ◽  
Nicolas Lenoir ◽  
Chloé Arson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Growth ◽  
Root Growth ◽  
Shear Strain ◽  
Root System ◽  
Capillary Rise ◽  
Image Correlation ◽  
Root Tip ◽  
Soil System ◽  
Local Soil ◽  
Initial Soil

AbstractMaize seedlings are grown in Hostun sand with two different gradings and two different densities. The root-soil system is imaged daily for the first 8 days of plant growth with X-ray computed tomography. Segmentation, skeletonisation and digital image correlation techniques are used to analyse the evolution of the root system architecture, the displacement fields and the local strain fields due to plant growth in the soil. It is found that root thickness and root length density do not depend on the initial soil configuration. However, the depth of the root tip is strongly influenced by the initial soil density, and the number of laterals is impacted by grain size, which controls pore size, capillary rise and thus root access to water. Consequently, shorter root axes are observed in denser sand and fewer second order roots are observed in coarser sands. In all soil configurations tested, root growth induces shear strain in the soil around the root system, and locally, in the vicinity of the first order roots axis. Root-induced shear is accompanied by dilative volumetric strain close to the root body. Further away, the soil experiences dilation in denser sand and compaction in looser sand. These results suggest that the increase of porosity close to the roots can be caused by a mix of shear strain and steric exclusion.

Abstract 18473: Rates and Risk Factors for Faster Aortic Root Growth in Pediatric Patients with Marfan Syndrome

Circulation ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 130 (suppl_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nitya Viswanathan ◽  
Claudia Pedroza ◽  
Shaine A Morris
Keyword(s):  
Aortic Dissection ◽  
Root Growth ◽  
Marfan Syndrome ◽  
Aortic Root ◽  
Scoliosis Surgery ◽  
Z Score ◽  
Aortic Dilation ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Infantile Type

Background: Marfan Syndrome (MS) is associated with progressive aortic dilation and aortic dissection. Aortic dissection is typically preceded by aortic dilation. The goal of this study is to identify factors associated with faster rates of aortic root dilation in children with MS. Methods: Patients undergoing serial transthoracic echocardiograms (TTE) with MS were retrospectively identified from an institutional database. Those with >2 TTEs over 1 year apart and <21 years of age at first TTE were included. TTEs performed after aortic surgery were excluded. Using multivariable longitudinal linear regression analysis, sex, medication, presence of ectopia lentis, need for scoliosis surgery and infantile type of MS were evaluated for associations with rate of change in aortic root dimension and aortic root z-score over time. Results: Of 240 patients with MS, 146 were included. Median age at first TTE was 8.1 yrs (range 0-20.9 years), median length of follow up 6.5 years (range 1.0-20.1 years), and median number of studies was 8 (range 2-25). Sixty-one percent were male. Of the 146 patients, 123 (84%) were documented to be on medical therapy: 14 angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB), 66 B-Blocker (BB), 10 prior history of both, 5 BB+ARB, 27 were in the Pediatric Heart Network medication trial, 1 ACE inhibitor. Sixteen patients underwent root replacement surgery at a median age of 14.6 years (range 1.8-24). No patients had aortic dissection. Three patients had infantile MS. All of these patients underwent root replacement at 1.8, 2 and 4 years of age. Two underwent subsequent aortic root replacement at 6 and 8 years old. Mean rate of aortic root growth in the cohort was 0.12cm/year, and mean change in z-score was 0.02/year (p=0.23 compared to expected rate of no change). The only variable associated with faster root growth was infantile MS (1.3cm/year, p<0.001; z-score change of 6.9/year, p<0.001). There was no significant difference in the rate of aortic root growth between patients who received therapy with BB vs. ARB vs. BB+ARB. Conclusions: Children with MS did not have a significant change in aortic root z-score over time, and the only factor associated with more rapid aortic root growth was infantile type MS.

Advances in understanding plant root responses to root-feeding insects

2021 ◽  
pp. 231-266
Author(s):  
Scott N. Johnson ◽  
◽  
Ximena Cibils-Stewart ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Plant Root ◽  
Plant Roots ◽  
Insect Herbivores ◽  
Soil Environment ◽  
Knowledge Gaps ◽  
Root Herbivores ◽  
Mutualistic Fungi ◽  
Root Responses ◽  
Insect Attack ◽  
Root Feeding

This chapter presents an overview of the interactions between plant roots and root-feeding insect herbivores, focussing on changes in growth and physiology and crucially how roots are defended against insect attack. Several reviews have covered the ecology and management of insect root herbivores, together with their interactions with the abiotic and biotic soil environment. Therefore, the chapter focuses particularly on advances in our understanding of how plant mutualistic fungi may affect root-herbivores. This is an emerging area of research, with many attendant knowledge gaps, but we argue that this is an important component of how plants resist attack by belowground insect herbivores.

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