High‐throughput physiological phenotyping and screening system for the characterization of plant–environment interactions

Abstract

We present a simple and effective high-throughput experimental platform for simultaneous and continuous monitoring of water relations in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum of numerous plants under dynamic environmental conditions. This system provides a simultaneously measured, detailed physiological response profile for each plant in the array, over time periods ranging from a few minutes to the entire growing season, under normal, stress and recovery conditions and at any phenological stage. Three probes for each pot in the array and a specially designed algorithm enable detailed water-relations characterization of whole-plant transpiration, biomass gain, stomatal conductance and root flux. They also enable quantitative calculation of the whole plant water-use efficiency and relative water content at high resolution under dynamic soil and atmospheric conditions. The system has no moving parts and can fit into many growing environments. A screening of 65 introgression lines of a wild tomato species (Solanum pennellii) crossed with cultivated tomato (S. lycopersicum), using our system and conventional gas-exchange tools, confirmed the accuracy of the system as well as its diagnostic capabilities. The use of this high-throughput diagnostic screening method is discussed in light of the gaps in our understanding of the genetic regulation of whole-plant performance, particularly under abiotic stress.

Accelerated flowering time reduces lifetime water use without penalizing reproductive performance in Arabidopsis

“…As plants begin to develop stalks and flowers, automated watering systems (Granier & Tardieu, 2009;Tisné et al, 2013) would cause considerable disturbance of the tall structures. Conversely, nonconveyor belt platforms (Halperin, Gebremedhin, Wallach, & Moshelion, 2017) or a manual approach involving careful handling of flowering plants limits the potential for harmful effects occurring due to movement and touch induced changes (Van Aken et al, 2016). From limited studies of this nature, the C24 ecotype has emerged as drought tolerant and highly water use efficient (Bechtold et al, 2010); additionally, it demonstrates resistance to numerous abiotic and biotic perturbations (Brosché et al, 2010;Lapin, Meyer, Takahashi, Bechtold, & Van den Ackerveken, 2012;Lapin et al, 2012;Xu et al, 2015;Bechtold, Ferguson, & Mullineaux, 2018).…”

Mutations in the tomato gibberellin receptors suppresses xylem proliferation and reduces water loss under water-deficit conditions

“…Whole-plant transpiration ratewas determined using an array of lysimeters placed in the greenhouse (Plantarry 3.0 system; Plant-DiTech) in the “iCORE Center for Functional Phenotyping” (http://departments.agri.huji.ac.il/plantscience/icore.phpon), as described in detail by Halperin et al . (2017).…”

A High-Throughput Physiological Functional Phenotyping System for Time- and Cost-Effective Screening of Potential Biostimulants

“…The experimental setup was generally similar to Halperin et al (2017) with some modifications. Briefly, before the start of the experiment, all load-cell units were calibrated for reading accuracy and drift level under constant load weights (1 kg and 5 kg).…”

“…Most of these facilities collect information using robotics and automated image acquisition and analysis (White et al, 2012; Kumar et al, 2015; Ghanem et al, 2015; Fischer et al, 2014; Fiorani and Schurr 2013; Gosa et al, 2018). Nevertheless, the quest for more detailed and in-depth phenotyping of the dynamic genotype◻×◻environment interactions and plant stress responses (in particular during drought) has put the capability of the existing methods into question (Ghanem et al, 2015; Li et al, 2014; Halperin et al, 2017; Rahaman et al, 2015; reviewed by Gosa et al, 2018). Herein, we demonstrate a high-throughput functional phenotyping system (HFPS) composed of gravimetric systems that enable us to compare plants’ dynamic responses to different ambient conditions in dynamic environments, due to its direct and simultaneous measurement of the yield-related physiological traits of all plants under several treatments.…”