Aachen Germany
October 16, 2015
Global plant phenotyping specialist LemnaTec has developed a data analysis process for the 3D Scanalyzer suitable for assessing leaf rolling in corn (Zea mays) plants, a symptom usually associated with drought stress.
The technique of using digital images to measure the development of plants is now well established, and documented in recent literature, e.g. (Rajendran et al., 2009; Golzarian et al., 2011; Neilson et al., 2015). Some parameters, such as leaf angle, leaf length and leaf colour, can be derived from a single image but for more complex information, multiple images are required.
As a minimum, the Scanalyzer makes three images each time a plant is processed. Plants are turned automatically through 90° to provide two perpendicular side view images which are combined with a third image from above.
From each single view one leaf area value is derived. These values may then be used to measure effective photosynthetic leaf area, plant volume for biomass estimations and leaf rolling dynamics.
Taking a look at some plant images, it becomes clear that the side view leaf area is not changing dramatically when the leaves start rolling. By contrast, the top view leaf area changes significantly under leaf rolling conditions. By calculating the ratio between both areas LemnaTec can derive a leaf area index with values lower than 1 indicating significant rolling. The side leaf area is used as a normalizing parameter, because plants may have different absolute sizes.
Chief Scientist Marcus Jansen commented, “This is valuable work and a good example of how the Scanalyzer can be used to address a very diverse range of phenotyping applications. Characterizing stress responses of crop plants will play a major part in plant science and breeding as we tackle the challenges of human nutrition and climate resilience”.
Golzarian MR, Frick RA, Rajendran K, Berger B, Roy S, Tester M, Lun DS (2011) Accurate inference of shoot biomass from high-throughput images of cereal plants. Plant Methods 7: 1–11
Neilson EH, Edwards AM, Blomstedt CK, Berger B, Moller BL, Gleadow RM (2015) Utilization of a high-throughput shoot imaging system to examine the dynamic phenotypic responses of a C4 cereal crop plant to nitrogen and water deficiency over time. Journal of Experimental Botany. doi: 10.1093/jxb/eru526
Rajendran K, Tester M, Roy SJ (2009) Quantifying the three main components of salinity tolerance in cereals. Plant, Cell & Environment 32: 237–249
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