X-Ray CT: Applications in Plant Research

Beatriz Andreo Jimenez Laboratory of Plant Physiology, WUR

• Why study plant architecture?

• Why use X-Ray CT?

• What useful information can we obtain?

• Why study plant architecture?

• Why use X-Ray CT?

• What useful information can we obtain?

• Why study plant architecture?

– To harness the available genomic information for agricultural applications we need to link it to a phenotype

– Know the causes of morphological/physiological variation

P H E N O M I C S

PHENOTYPE

GENOTYPE ENVIRONMENT

• Why study plant architecture? – Increasing demand to support/accelerate progress

in breeding for novel traits

– Accelerate research in:

• model organisms • biotechnology industrial pipelines • plant breeding programs for yield and resource efficiency

Drought tolerance

Pathogen resistance

Good quality grain

• Why study plant architecture?

– Phenotyping is the bottleneck on Plant Science

PLANT PHENOTYPING

NGS technology

Root architecture

Canopy temperature

- Need to accurately measure large numbers of plants/plant parameters

- Need to find new traits

• Why study plant architecture? – need to observe roots in their natural undisturbed

state within soil – understand growth dynamics / productivity – High spatial variation

• Why study plant architecture?

• Why use X-Ray CT?

• What useful information can we obtain?

• Why use X-Ray? – For 2D imaging

– Invasive method

Arsenault J.-L., S. Pouleur, C. Messier & R. Guay. 1995. WinRHIZO, a root-measuring system with a unique overlap correction method. HortScience, Vol. 30, pp. 906. (Abstract)

• Why use X-Ray? – With invasive methods we are missing information

MRL: 36.7 cm 57.3 cm 56.5 cm 25.5 cm 56.5 cm 56.7 cm Stress Control Stress Control Stress Control

Variety 1 Variety 2 Variety 3

N. Kadam (non published)

• Why use X-Ray? – X-Ray CT offers a good potential for examining

undisturbed root architecture in soils

X-Ray MRI

~ 5-10 min ~ 30 min

Imaging different kind of materials Better with soft tissues

Less affected by soil Very affected by soil (Fe, Mn)

Potentially for high-through put -

• Why study plant architecture?

• Why use X-Ray CT?

• What useful information can we obtain?

Mooney et al. 2012

- Homogenized mineral soils have better resolution

Lontoc-Roy et al. 2006

DRY FC

- Dry soil provide a complete representation of the root system

- Soil compaction affects root architecture

- There are differences between genotypes

SOFTWARE

http://www.rootviz3d.org/

SOFTWARE