Dermendjiev Georgi, Schnurer Madeleine, Stewart Ethan, Nägele Thomas, Marino Giada, Leister Dario, Thür Alexandra, Plott Stefan, Jeż Jakub, Ibl Verena
Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Molecular Systems Biology (MoSys), University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Plant Sciences Facility, Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities (VBCF), Vienna, Austria.
Front Plant Sci. 2023 May 31;14:1166511. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2023.1166511. eCollection 2023.
Roots are the hidden parts of plants, anchoring their above-ground counterparts in the soil. They are responsible for water and nutrient uptake and for interacting with biotic and abiotic factors in the soil. The root system architecture (RSA) and its plasticity are crucial for resource acquisition and consequently correlate with plant performance while being highly dependent on the surrounding environment, such as soil properties and therefore environmental conditions. Thus, especially for crop plants and regarding agricultural challenges, it is essential to perform molecular and phenotypic analyses of the root system under conditions as near as possible to nature (#asnearaspossibletonature). To prevent root illumination during experimental procedures, which would heavily affect root development, Dark-Root (D-Root) devices (DRDs) have been developed. In this article, we describe the construction and different applications of a sustainable, affordable, flexible, and easy to assemble open-hardware bench-top LEGO® DRD, the DRD-BIBLOX (Brick Black Box). The DRD-BIBLOX consists of one or more 3D-printed rhizoboxes, which can be filled with soil while still providing root visibility. The rhizoboxes sit in a scaffold of secondhand LEGO® bricks, which allows root development in the dark and non-invasive root tracking with an infrared (IR) camera and an IR light-emitting diode (LED) cluster. Proteomic analyses confirmed significant effects of root illumination on barley root and shoot proteomes. Additionally, we confirmed the significant effect of root illumination on barley root and shoot phenotypes. Our data therefore reinforces the importance of the application of field conditions in the lab and the value of our novel device, the DRD-BIBLOX. We further provide a DRD-BIBLOX application spectrum, spanning from investigating a variety of plant species and soil conditions and simulating different environmental conditions and stresses, to proteomic and phenotypic analyses, including early root tracking in the dark.
根系是植物隐藏于地下的部分，将其地上部分固定在土壤中。它们负责水分和养分的吸收，并与土壤中的生物和非生物因素相互作用。根系结构（RSA）及其可塑性对于资源获取至关重要，因此与植物表现相关，同时高度依赖周围环境，如土壤性质及由此决定的环境条件。因此，尤其是对于农作物以及考虑到农业面临的挑战，在尽可能接近自然的条件下（#尽可能接近自然）对根系进行分子和表型分析至关重要。为防止实验过程中根系受光照，因为这会严重影响根系发育，人们开发了暗根（D-Root）装置（DRD）。在本文中，我们描述了一种可持续、价格亲民、灵活且易于组装的开放式硬件台式乐高® DRD（DRD-BIBLOX，即砖块黑匣子）的构造及不同应用。DRD-BIBLOX由一个或多个3D打印的根箱组成，这些根箱可以填充土壤，同时仍能观察到根系。根箱放置在二手乐高®积木搭建的支架中，这使得根系能在黑暗中生长，并通过红外（IR）相机和红外发光二极管（LED）集群进行非侵入式根系追踪。蛋白质组学分析证实了根系光照对大麦根系和地上部蛋白质组有显著影响。此外，我们还证实了根系光照对大麦根系和地上部表型有显著影响。因此，我们的数据强化了在实验室应用田间条件的重要性以及我们新型装置DRD-BIBLOX的价值。我们还进一步提供了DRD-BIBLOX的应用范围，涵盖从研究各种植物物种和土壤条件、模拟不同环境条件和胁迫，到蛋白质组学和表型分析，包括黑暗中的早期根系追踪。
