Non-destructive, whole-plant phenotyping reveals dynamic changes in water use efficiency, photosynthetic efficiency, and rhizosphere acidification of sorghum cultivars under osmotic stress

Abstract

Noninvasive phenotyping can quantify dynamic plant growth processes at higher temporal resolution than destructive phenotyping and can reveal phenomena that would be missed by end-point analysis alone. Additionally, whole-plant phenotyping can identify growth conditions that are optimal for both above- and below-ground tissues. However, noninvasive, whole-plant phenotyping approaches available today are generally expensive, complex, and non-modular. We developed a low-cost and versatile approach to non-invasively measure whole-plant physiology over time by growing plants in isolated hydroponic chambers. We demonstrate the versatility of our approach by measuring whole-plant biomass accumulation, water use, and water use efficiency every two days on unstressed and osmotically-stressed sorghum accessions. We identified relationships between root zone acidification and photosynthetic efficiency on whole-plant water use efficiency over time. Our system can be implemented using cheap, basic components, requires no specific technical expertise, and is suitable for any non-aquatic vascular plant species.

Plant phenotyping relevance

低コストでモジュール型の非破壊・全植物表現型計測システムを開発し、成長、吸水、WUEなどを経時測定しており、フェノタイピング手法が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The supplied blocks describe a hydroponic whole-plant phenotyping study of sorghum (biomass, water use, WUE, FV/FM, rhizosphere pH), but contain no public phenotype dataset, images, analysis code, or repository deposit. A 'Supplemental File 1' with pH data is referenced but no public URL or deposit is given, and nodata

No evidence-backed public reproduction asset is currently recorded.