A Telemetric, Gravimetric Platform for Real-Time Physiological Phenotyping of Plant–Environment Interactions

Abstract

Food security for the growing global population is a major concern. The data provided by genomic tools far exceeds the supply of phenotypic data, creating a knowledge gap. To meet the challenge of improving crops to feed the growing global population, this gap must be bridged.Physiological traits are considered key functional traits in the context of responsiveness or sensitivity to environmental conditions. Many recently introduced high-throughput (HTP) phenotyping techniques are based on remote sensing or imaging and are capable of directly measuring morphological traits, but measure physiological parameters mainly indirectly. This paper describes a method for direct physiological phenotyping that has several advantages for the functional phenotyping of plant-environment interactions. It helps users overcome the many challenges encountered in the use of load-cell gravimetric systems and pot experiments. The suggested techniques will enable users to distinguish between soil weight, plant weight and soil water content, providing a method for the continuous and simultaneous measurement of dynamic soil, plant and atmosphere conditions, alongside the measurement of key physiological traits. This method allows researchers to closely mimic field stress scenarios while taking into consideration the environment's effects on the plants' physiology. This method also minimizes pot effects, which are one of the major problems in pre-field phenotyping. It includes a feed-back fertigation system that enables a truly randomized experimental design at a field-like plant density. This system detects the soil-water-content limiting threshold (θ) and allows for the translation of data into knowledge through the use of a real-time analytic tool and an online statistical resource. This method for the rapid

Tree tobacco (Nicotiana glauca) cuticular wax composition is essential for leaf retention during drought, facilitating a speedy recovery following rewatering

“…(2017) and Dalal et al . (2020) (see Methods S1 for details). In short, plants were grown on the lysimeter system for a period before drought, when biomass accumulation and water use efficiency (WUE) were monitored.…”

Drought response of water-conserving and non-conserving spring barley cultivars

“…Exposing all plants to similar drought stress is possible by taking into account each plant’s transpiration rate, e.g., by re-irrigating only a certain percentage of the previous day transpiration. This mimics the gradual development of soil water deficits in the field ( Negin and Moshelion, 2016 ; Gosa et al., 2019 ; Dalal et al., 2020 ). To ensure that occurring water loss was solely due to plant transpiration, we covered the soil with a styrofoam sheet to prevent soil evaporation.…”

“…A more detailed description of the system and the underlying theory can be found in Halperin et al. (2017) and Dalal et al. (2020) .…”