Sugiura Daisuke, Mitsuya Shiro, Takahashi Hirokazu, Yamamoto Ryo, Miyazawa Yoshiyuki
Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan.
Graduate School of Engineering, Technical Office, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya, 464-8601, Japan.
Plant Methods. 2024 Nov 24;20(1):179. doi: 10.1186/s13007-024-01305-0.
Climate change and the growing demand for agricultural water threaten global food security. Understanding water use characteristics of major crops from leaf to field scale is critical, particularly for identifying crop varieties with enhanced water-use efficiency (WUE) and stress tolerance. Traditional methods to assess WUE are either by gas exchange measurements at the leaf level or labor-intensive manual pot weighing at the whole-plant level, both of which have limited throughput.
Here, we developed a microcontroller-based low-cost system that integrates pot weighing, automated water supply, and real-time monitoring of plant water consumption via Wi-Fi. We validated the system using major crops (rice soybean, maize) under diverse stress conditions (salt, waterlogging, drought). Salt-tolerant rice maintained higher water consumption and growth under salinity than salt-sensitive rice. Waterlogged soybean exhibited reduced water use and growth. Long-term experiments revealed significant WUE differences between rice varieties and morphological adaptations represented by altered shoot-to-root ratios under constant drought conditions in maize.
We demonstrate that the system can be used for varietal differences between major crops in their response to drought, waterlogging, and salinity stress. This system enables high-throughput, long-term evaluation of water use characteristics, facilitating the selection and development of water-saving and stress-tolerant crop varieties.
气候变化和对农业用水需求的不断增长威胁着全球粮食安全。了解主要作物从叶片到田间尺度的用水特性至关重要，特别是对于识别具有提高水分利用效率（WUE）和胁迫耐受性的作物品种。评估WUE的传统方法要么是在叶片水平进行气体交换测量，要么是在全株水平进行劳动强度大的手动盆栽称重，这两种方法的通量都有限。
在此，我们开发了一种基于微控制器的低成本系统，该系统集成了盆栽称重、自动供水以及通过Wi-Fi实时监测植物耗水量。我们在不同胁迫条件（盐、涝、旱）下使用主要作物（水稻、大豆、玉米）对该系统进行了验证。耐盐水稻在盐胁迫下比盐敏感水稻保持更高的耗水量和生长量。受涝大豆的水分利用和生长减少。长期实验表明，在玉米持续干旱条件下，水稻品种之间的WUE存在显著差异，并且以茎根比改变为代表的形态适应也存在差异。
我们证明该系统可用于主要作物在干旱、涝渍和盐胁迫响应方面的品种差异研究。该系统能够对用水特性进行高通量、长期评估，有助于节水和耐胁迫作物品种的选育和开发。
