Investigation of Plant Root Elongation by Screening the Surface of a Petri Dish

摘要

An image processing based approach is described which allows automatic detection of root tip and, in combination with a newly developed robot based platform, it enables a high throughput screening of root growth, for several seedlings simultaneously. The computer controlled positioning unit moves a Petri dish in small increments and enables continuous screening of the surface under a binocular microscope. Detection of the root tip is achieved by applying thresholds on image pixel data and scanning the neighbourhood for each dark point. Image subtraction can be applied to distinguish the growing root tip from any permanent dark object in the background. The growth parameters are visualized as 'position over time' or 'growth rate over time' graphs and are averaged over days or light-dark periods by our newly developed software package. Proof of the developed system is provided by application to Arabidopsis thaliana wild type col0 seedlings.