Non-Destructive Evaluation of In Vitro Blackberry Shoot Architecture Under Different Sucrose Levels Through Smartphone-Derived 3D Reconstruction

Abstract

Blackberry micropropagation enables the rapid production of pathogen-free and genetically uniform plant material, although the evaluation of in vitro shoot development still relies on destructive and time-consuming measurements. This study investigated a low-cost smartphone-based 3D imaging approach for the non-destructive characterization of in vitro blackberry shoots (cultivar ‘Thornfree’) grown under different sucrose concentrations in the media (0, 7.5, 15, and 30 g L−1). Explants were cultured for 30 days under controlled environmental conditions in ventilated vessels containing 15 explants. Three-dimensional reconstructions generated using the viDoC RTK rover system coupled with an Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max were used to extract geometric traits, including shoot height, projected area, and shoot volume estimated through three complementary approaches, together with voxel-derived structural descriptors of shoot spatial organization and compactness. The proposed approach enabled the quantitative assessment of shoot architectural responses to sucrose availability, revealing differences in volumetric development and internal structural organization among treatments that would not be detectable by conventional measurements. The results highlight the potential of smartphone-based 3D phenotyping as a rapid, low-cost, and non-destructive tool for monitoring structural traits in micropropagated plant material and for supporting the optimization of in vitro culture conditions.

Plant phenotyping relevance

スマートフォン由来の3D再構成を用いてシュート形態・構造形質を抽出する手法が研究の中心であり、非破壊植物フェノタイピングへの実質的応用である。

Code and data availability

The supplied blocks describe smartphone-based 3D phenotyping of in vitro blackberry shoots, but contain no data availability statement, public dataset, image repository, or author code deposit. Analysis was performed with commercial software (Agisoft Metashape, Cyclone 3DR, CloudCompare, QGIS) and spreadsheet-based, in

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