Accelerated high-throughput imaging and phenotyping system for small organisms

Abstract

Studying the complex web of interactions in biological communities requires large multifactorial experiments with sufficient statistical power. Automation tools reduce the time and labor associated with setup, data collection, and analysis in experiments that untangle these webs. We developed tools for high-throughput experimentation (HTE) in duckweeds, small aquatic plants that are amenable to autonomous experimental preparation and image-based phenotyping. We showcase the abilities of our HTE system in a study with 6,000 experimental units grown across 2,000 treatments. These automated tools facilitated the collection and analysis of time-resolved growth data, which revealed finer dynamics of plant-microbe interactions across environmental gradients. Altogether, our HTE system can run experiments with up to 11,520 experimental units and can be adapted for other small organisms.

Plant phenotyping relevance

アヒルウキクサを対象に、自動化された大規模実験系と画像ベースの時系列成長データ取得・解析を開発・提示しており、植物フェノタイピング基盤が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The paper's Data Availability statement explicitly deposits the authors' data (Dryad) and code (Zenodo) for this duckweed high-throughput imaging/phenotyping study.