Back to Archived Journals » International Journal of High Throughput Screening » Volume 4

Simple system using natural mineral water for high-throughput phenotyping of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings in liquid culture

Authors Benamar A, Pierart A, Baecker V, Avelange-Macherel M, Rolland A, Gaudichon S, di Gioia L, Macherel D

Received 21 November 2012

Accepted for publication 12 January 2013

Published 28 February 2013 Volume 2013:4 Pages 1—15

DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/IJHTS.S40565

Checked for plagiarism Yes

Review by Single anonymous peer review

Peer reviewer comments 3



Abdelilah Benamar,1 Antoine Pierart,1 Volker Baecker,2 Marie-Hélène Avelange-Macherel,3 Aurélia Rolland,1 Sabine Gaudichon,4 Lodovico di Gioia,4 David Macherel1

1Université d’Angers, Lunam Université, Angers, 2MRI-Montpellier RIO Imaging, Montpellier, 3Agrocampus Ouest, Angers, 4Danone Research, Palaiseau Cedex, France

Background: Phenotyping for plant stress tolerance is an essential component of many research projects. Because screening of high numbers of plants and multiple conditions remains technically challenging and costly, there is a need for simple methods to carry out large-scale phenotyping in the laboratory.
Methods: We developed a method for phenotyping the germination and seedling growth of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) Col-0 in liquid culture. Culture was performed under rotary shaking in multiwell plates, using Evian natural mineral water as a medium. Nondestructive and accurate quantification of green pixels by digital image analysis allowed monitoring of growth.
Results: The composition of the water prevented excessive root elongation growth that would otherwise lead to clumping of seedlings observed when classic nutrient-rich medium or deionized water is used. There was no need to maintain the cultures under aseptic conditions, and seedlings, which are photosynthetic, remained healthy for several weeks. Several proof-of-concept experiments demonstrated the usefulness of the approach for environmental stress phenotyping.
Conclusion: The system described here is easy to set up, cost-effective, and enables a single researcher to screen large numbers of lines under various conditions. The simplicity of the method clearly makes it amenable to high-throughput phenotyping using robotics.

Keywords: phenotyping, phenomics, stress, seed, seedling, image analysis

Creative Commons License © 2013 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.