PHENOPSIS: atuomated platforms for phenotypine
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Presentation The PHENOPSIS automaton is a prototype built by Optimalog (France) in 2003. It allows to weight, irrigate precisely and take a picture of more than 500 individual Arabidopsis thaliana plants in rigorously controlled conditions.
Technical part
It is composed of a steel frame supporting 14 trays with 36 holes supporting
each a pot. (Fig. 1a, b). A mechanical arm is able to move according
to a program developed by Apilogic on ApiGraf IP â software. Displacement
sensors, a balance (Sartorius, CP622), a tube for irrigation and a camera
(Sony, SSC-DC393P) are loaded onto this arm to weigh, irrigate and take
a digital picture of each pot (Fig. 1a, b, c to h). Positions of the
pots on the 14 trays, dates and times of cycle of irrigation, the weight
to be reached by the pot and the necessity not to take a picture or
not were programmed into a computer on the ApiGraf IP â software
(Fig. 1i).
The automaton is set up in a growth-chamber built by AM Froid (Montpellier, France). The climatic regulation of the growth-chamber is controlled by a computer connected to different sensors via a CR10 (Campbell) including air temperature, air humidity and leaf temperature sensors. Each micro-meteorological condition is measured with a 10 s time-lapse and when any climatic variable strays beyond acceptable limits, as defined in the program, the computer acts to restore the desired environment by employing an air drier or a water sprayer to modify air humidity, an air-cooler or a heater to modify air temperature and the lights to modify day-length.
Scientific part
The PHENOPSIS platform was used in the frame of a GABI-GENOPLANTE project
to analyse leaf growth, transpiration and water use efficiency in a
collection of 24 accessions subjected to various water deficit treatments.
It allowed the identification of an accession with a very low sensitivity
to soil water deficit and by breaking down further leaf growth in underlying
variables it allowed to reveal intrinsic compensation among leaf growth
variables (Coll. O. Brendel, Nancy, FRANCE).
The PHENOPSIS platform was used to analyse the effect of soil water deficit on cell division and endoreduplication in leaves of different accessions, mutants and transgenic lines affected in the process of endoreduplication (Coll. L. de Veylder, Gent, BELGIUM).
The PHENOPSIS platform is currently used :
- in the frame of a Haigneré postdoctoral research to evaluate
the contribution of carbon metabolism in the plasticity of leaf expansion
in response to soil water deficit. This was done on different mutants
and a collection of more than 100 accessions in collaboration with Y.
Gibon (MPI, Golm, GERMANY).
-to detect QTLs associated with leaf expansion and the plasticity of
leaf expansion in response to water deficit and day-length in collaboration
with M. Koornneef and M. Reymond (MPI, Koln, GERMANY).
- for High-throughput analysis of leaf growth in mutants affected in
cell cycle, endoreduplication, cell wall properties, metabolism, flowering…
(in the frame of the integrated European project, Agron-omics)
Read these papers :
Granier C et al., (2006) PHENOPSIS, an automated platform for reproducible
phenotyping of plant responses to soil water deficit in Arabidopsis
thaliana permitted the identification of an accession with low sensitivity
to soil water deficit. New Phytologist, 169 (3): 623-635
Aguirrezabal L et al. 2006. Plasticity to soil water deficit in Arabidopsis
thaliana: dissection of leaf development into underlying growth dynamic
and cellular variables reveals invisible phenotypes. Plant, Cell and
Environment, 29: 2216-2227.
Cookson SJ, Radziejwoski A, Granier C (2006) Cell and leaf size plasticity
in Arabidopsis : what is the role of endoreduplication? Plant, Cell
and Environment, 29: 1273-1283