Recipient Organization
WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
240 FRENCH ADMINISTRATION BLDG
PULLMAN,WA 99164-0001
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The new plant phenotyping instrument enables and stimulates fundamental and applied research, teaching, and collaborations with Washington State University, University of Idaho, USDA, extension centers, and regional scientist. The instrument, comprised of a multi-camera robotic imaging array and a water/nutrient control and measuring system allows non-invasive, automated monitoring of photosynthesis, fluorescent proteins, different shoot anatomical parameters, leaf temperature, hyperspectral data, transpiration rates, water-use-efficiency, stomatal conductance, growth rates, and biomass. The instrument will be localized in a state-of-the-art growth room. The unique measuring capabilities of the new instrument will stimulate research collaborations and advance the understanding of how crops will respond to future climate conditions. The new phenotyping facility will be advertised and offered to students, other scientists, teachers, stakeholders, and farmers. This will advance food production and precision agriculture in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
Animal Health Component
30%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
30%
Developmental
10%
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this project is to establish a versatile and fully automated plant phenotyping platform enabling multiple fundamental and applied scientific programs to foster plant and agricultural research at Washington State University and the surround regions. It is aimed atstimulating research and teaching in plant biology, horticulture, plant and soil sciences, bioengineering and bioinformatics atWashington State Universityand other research institutions in the Pacific Northwest. The new facility will serve as a hub that will spark multidisciplinary research and teaching collaborations highly relevant for developing resilient and productive crop plants. In that way the new state-of-the-art plant phenotyping facility will close a critical gap in the Washington State University and the Pacific Northwest research infrastructure to integrate fundamental and applied plant and agricultural sciences.
Project Methods
The instrument consists of two computer-controlled parts: A optical imaging system and water managing and sensing system. The versatile imaging systems allows measurements of morphological and functional plant parameters ranging from photosynthesis, detection of fluorescent marker proteins (e.g., GFP), different shoot anatomical parameters, leaf temperature, and hyperspectral analysis. The water sensing system allows the non-invasive monitoring of whole plant water-use, nutrient availability, growth rates, transpiration rates, water-use-efficiency, and stomatal conductance under well controlled water and nutrient conditions. The precisely positioning of the imaging carrier above the plants employs the 'sensor to the plant' concept allowing non-invasive imaging multiple times per hours to once a day under well-defined illumination conditions. The control software automatically records the data with a time and position stamp. Measurements collected by the optical imaging system will be synchronized with the water managing and sensing system. Both systems will monitor plants throughout their growth allowing investigators to track changes in developmental stages and responses to stress that can be triggered at prescribed time points. This will lead to a full set of parameters defining plant performance. Processing of the data will be done by employing different bioinformatic methods.