PHENOPSIS, an automated platform for reproducible phenotyping of plant responses to soil water deficit in Arabidopsis thaliana permitted the identification of an accession with low sensitivity to soil water deficit.
The high-throughput phenotypic analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana collections requires methodological progress and automation. Methods to impose stable and reproducible soil water deficits are presented and were used to analyse plant responses to water stress. Several potential complications and methodological difficulties were identified, including the spatial and temporal variability of micrometeorological conditions within a growth chamber, the difference in soil water depletion rates between accessions and the differences in developmental stage of accessions the same time after sowing. Solutions were found. Nine accessions were grown in four experiments in a rigorously controlled growth-chamber equipped with an automated system to control soil water content and take pictures of individual plants. One accession, An1, was unaffected by water deficit in terms of leaf number, leaf area, root growth and transpiration rate per unit leaf area. Methods developed here will help identify quantitative trait loci and genes involved in plant tolerance to water deficit.
Granier
Christine
C
Laboratoire d'Ecophysiologie des Plantes sous Stress Environnementaux UMR 759, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique/Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Agronomie, Place Viala, F-34060 Montpellier, Cedex 1, France. granier@ensam.inra.fr
Aguirrezabal
Luis
L
Chenu
Karine
K
Cookson
Sarah Jane
SJ
Dauzat
Myriam
M
Hamard
Philippe
P
Thioux
Jean-Jacques
JJ
Rolland
Gaëlle
G
Bouchier-Combaud
Sandrine
S
Lebaudy
Anne
A
Muller
Bertrand
B
Simonneau
Thierry
T
Tardieu
François
F
D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D003681:Dehydration; D014644:Genetic Variation; D023281:Genomics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D005838:Genotype; D008954:Models, Biological; D010641:Phenotype; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000254:growth & development; D018526:Plant Transpiration; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results