Image-based analysis to dissect vertical distribution and horizontal asymmetry of conspecific root system interactions in response to planting densities, nutrients and root exudates in Arabidopsis Thaliana

Jane Geisler-Lee, Xian Liu, Wei Rang, Jayanthan Raveendiran, Marisa Blake Szubryt, David John Gibson, Matt Geisler, Qiang Cheng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Intraspecific competition is an important plant interaction that has been studied extensively aboveground, but less so belowground, due to the difficulties in accessing the root system experimentally. Recent in vivo and in situ automatic imaging advances help understand root system architecture. In this study, a portable imaging platform and a scalable transplant technique were applied to test intraspecific competition in Arabidopsis thaliana. A single green fluorescent protein labeled plant was placed in the center of a grid of different planting densities of neighboring unlabeled plants or empty spaces, into which different treatments were made to the media. The root system of the central plant showed changes in the vertical distribution with increasing neighbor density, becoming more positively kurtotic, and developing an increasing negative skew with time. Horizontal root distribution was initially asymmetric, but became more evenly circular with time, and mean direction was not affected by the presence of adjacent empty spaces as initially hypothesized. To date, this is the first study to analyze the patterns of both vertical and horizontal growth in conspecific root systems. We present a portable imaging platform with simplicity, accessibility, and scalability, to capture the dynamic interactions of plant root systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number46
JournalPlants
Volume6
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the authors.

Funding

Acknowledgments: This work is funded by an NSF Information and Intelligent Systems grant (Award# 1238125) that was awarded to Qiang Cheng. Marisa Blake Szubryt was supported by the Undergraduate Research Assistantship (UGA) program at SIUC in 2015–2016, and Xian Liu by a Graduate Research Assistantship through the SIUC Environmental Resources and Policy program. The authors wish to thank the four undergraduate students, Jacob Gerfen (2012–2013), Robert Higgins (2013–2014), Jesse Kays (2014–2015) and Kelsey Reed (2015–2016), for their assistance in imaging roots. They were supported by the SIUC Undergraduate Research Assistantships.

FundersFunder number
SIUC
Undergraduate Research Assistantship
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program
Directorate for Biological Sciences1238125
Directorate for Biological Sciences

    Keywords

    • Arabidopsis thaliana
    • Conspecific root
    • Imaging
    • Root system
    • Skewness and kurtosis

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
    • Ecology
    • Plant Science

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