Mia Ruppel
Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri, Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri, Department of Biomedical, Biological and Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri
Corresponding Author:mrrncm@mail.missouri.edu
Author ProfileJacob Washburn
Plant Genetics Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Columbia, Mo, Plant Genetics Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Columbia, Mo, Plant Genetics Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Columbia, Mo
Author ProfileAbstract
Higher temperatures across the globe are causing an increase in the
frequency and severity of droughts. In agricultural crops, this results
in reduced yields, financial losses for farmers, and increased food
costs at the supermarket. Root architecture plays a major role in a
plant’s ability to survive and perform under drought conditions but
phenotyping root growth to determine the genetic and environmental
factors involved is extremely difficult due to roots being under the
soil. RootBot is an automated high-throughput phenotyper that eliminates
many of the difficulties and time constraints for performing multiple
drought-stress studies. RootBot can simulate plant growth conditions
during the first 72 hours of growth using transparent plates filled with
soil (as opposed to synthetic media such as agar). RootBot has the
capacity for up to 50 plates at a time, however, designing a system to
organize these plates, image them at the appropriate times, and save and
analyze the data for many plates simultaneously is challenging. To
improve upon the pipeline, we incorporate strategies from existing
phenotyping pipelines into the imaging and measurement processes. We
will also investigate the genotypes using GWAS to identify sequence
variants associated with drought tolerance or lack thereof. This
pipeline will improve RootBot’s abilities in high-throughput phenotyping
and the information gathered will be helpful towards future genetic
engineering and breeding.