Phenocave: An Automated, Standalone, and Affordable Phenotyping System for Controlled Growth Conditions.

Abstract

Controlled plant growth facilities provide the possibility to alter climate conditions affecting plant growth, such as humidity, temperature, and light, allowing a better understanding of plant responses to abiotic and biotic stresses. A bottleneck, however, is measuring various aspects of plant growth regularly and non-destructively. Although several high-throughput phenotyping facilities have been built worldwide, further development is required for smaller custom-made affordable systems for specific needs. Hence, the main objective of this study was to develop an affordable, standalone and automated phenotyping system called "Phenocave" for controlled growth facilities. The system can be equipped with consumer-grade digital cameras and multispectral cameras for imaging from the top view. The cameras are mounted on a gantry with two linear actuators enabling XY motion, thereby enabling imaging of the entire area of Phenocave. A blueprint for constructing such a system is presented and is evaluated with two case studies using wheat and sugar beet as model plants. The wheat plants were treated with different irrigation regimes or high nitrogen application at different developmental stages affecting their biomass accumulation and growth rate. A significant correlation was observed between conventional measurements and digital biomass at different time points. Post-harvest analysis of grain protein content and composition corresponded well with those of previous studies. The results from the sugar beet study revealed that seed treatment(s) before germination influences germination rates. Phenocave enables automated phenotyping of plants under controlled conditions, and the protocols and results from this study will allow others to build similar systems with dimensions suitable for their custom needs.

Plant phenotyping relevance

低コストで自動化された植物表現型計測システムの開発、構築仕様の提示、ケーススタディによる評価が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The supplied blocks describe the Phenocave system, wheat and sugar beet case studies, and an ImageJ-based image analysis pipeline, but contain no public phenotype/trait dataset, image deposit, author analysis code, or trained model with an availability statement or repository URL. The only URLs present are the CC BY 4.

No evidence-backed public reproduction asset is currently recorded.