RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Recent advances in genome sequencing technologies have shifted the research bottleneck in plant sciences from genotyping to phenotyping. This shift has driven the development of phenomics, high-throughput non-invasive phenotyping technologies. RESULTS: We describe an automated high-throughput phenotyping platform, the Phenovator, capable of screening 1440 Arabidopsis plants multiple times per day for photosynthesis, growth and spectral reflectance at eight wavelengths. Using this unprecedented phenotyping capacity, we have been able to detect significant genetic differences between Arabidopsis accessions for all traits measured, across both temporal and environmental scales. The high frequency of measurement allowed us to observe that heritability was not only trait specific, but for some traits was also time specific. CONCLUSIONS: Such continuous real-time non-destructive phenotyping will allow detailed genetic and physiological investigations of the kinetics of plant homeostasis and development. The success and ultimate outcome of a breeding program will depend greatly on the genetic variance which is sampled. Our observation of temporal fluctuations in trait heritability shows that the moment of measurement can have lasting consequences. Ultimately such phenomic level technologies will provide more dynamic insights into plant physiology, and the necessary data for the omics revolution to reach its full potential.
RESUMEN
In this paper, a laboratory goniometer system for performing multi-angular measurements under controlled illumination conditions is described. A commercially available robotic arm enables the acquisition of a large number of measurements over the full hemisphere within a short time span making it much faster than other goniometers. In addition, the presented set-up enables assessment of anisotropic reflectance and emittance behaviour of soils, leaves and small canopies. Mounting a spectrometer enables acquisition of either hemispherical measurements or measurements in the horizontal plane. Mounting a thermal camera allows directional observations of the thermal emittance. This paper also presents three showcases of these different measurement set-ups in order to illustrate its possibilities. Finally, suggestions for applying this instrument and for future research directions are given, including linking the measured reflectance anisotropy with physically-based anisotropy models on the one hand and combining them with field goniometry measurements for joint analysis with remote sensing data on the other hand. The speed and flexibility of the system offer a large added value to the existing pool of laboratory goniometers.
