Root Phenotyping Imaging Platform

Root system is an important organ that mainly absorbs water and nutrients and supports the above-ground part of plants, and it is a hotspot of plant phenotyping and crop phenomics research in recent years. Monitoring and studying the root system can optimize the water and fertilizer program, promote the crop and forestry industries to increase yield and efficiency, accelerate plant and crop breeding, and benefit land desertification control and soil remediation. Lifeasible's Roots Imaging Platform can be applied to different types of plant research, including crops, trees, grass plants, etc. It can be used for basic scientific research to study root growth and development and applied to applications such as root breeding and soil management in the agricultural field.

Figure 1. Root phenotyping experiment set-up and representative root images. (Sertse et al., 2019).

About Root Imaging Technology

The emergence and rapid development of root imaging techniques provide more intuitive and effective research methods for the study of plant root systems, such as neutron imaging, X-ray scanning, nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, ground-penetrating radar, fluorescence imaging, laser confocal imaging, multispectral imaging, hyperspectral imaging, and computed tomography imaging, etc. The non-imaging methods include the measurement of the functional physiological phenotypes of the root system. According to the growth characteristics of plants and the growing environment, various imaging modules are utilized to monitor the development of the root system without destroying its growth.

Measurement Scope

1) Total root length

2) Average root diameter

3) Total root area

4) Total root volume

5) Root tip count

6) Bifurcation count

7) Overlap counts

8) Root diameter class distribution parameters

9) Root tip segment length distribution

Root Imaging Platform Services

• Lifeasible's Root Imaging Platform customizes unequally spaced segment diameters and automatically measures the length, projected area, surface area, and volume of each diameter segment and its distribution parameters.
• Lifeasible's Root Imaging Platform performs color analysis of root systems to determine the number of surviving roots and outputs the diameter, length, projected area, surface area, and volume of different colored roots.
• Lifeasible's Root Imaging Platform analyzes the topology of the root system, automatically determines the number of connections, relationship angles, etc., and automatically analyzes the length and number of forks of the main root or any of the lateral roots, with each parameter corresponding to any diameter segment of the root system individually labeled.
• Lifeasible can analyze the in-situ root system image with interactive guidance, lock and edit the root system path, and correct the root system's length, thickness, position, etc., It has the following magnifying glass of the mouse editing point and has the function of automatic root system puzzle.

Lifeasible's Root Imaging Platform uses non-destructive imaging technology to observe and analyze root structures without damaging plants. The platform allows researchers to observe root growth at different points in time. This is important for studying root dynamics and responses, such as adaptation to environmental conditions and plant responses to biological stimuli. Lifeasible's Root Imaging Platform has high-resolution imaging capabilities that capture minute details of root structure. If you are interested in our platform, please do not hesitate to contact us anytime.

Reference

1. Sertse, D., et al. (2019). "The complex genetic architecture of early root and shoot traits in flax revealed by genome-wide association analyses." Frontiers in Plant Science, 10, 1483.