GLO-Roots: an imaging platform enabling multidimensional characterization of soil-grown root systems
- Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico
- University of Liège, Belgium
- Carnegie Institution for Science, United States
- United States Department of Agriculture, United States
- Stanford University, United States
- University of California, Davis, United States
- Harvard Medical School, United States
- Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, United States
Abstract
Root systems develop different root types that individually sense cues from their local environment and integrate this information with systemic signals. This complex multi-dimensional amalgam of inputs enables continuous adjustment of root growth rates, direction and metabolic activity that define a dynamic physical network. Current methods for analyzing root biology balance physiological relevance with imaging capability. To bridge this divide, we developed an integrated imaging system called Growth and Luminescence Observatory for Roots (GLO-Roots) that uses luminescence-based reporters to enable studies of root architecture and gene expression patterns in soil-grown, light-shielded roots. We have developed image analysis algorithms that allow the spatial integration of soil properties, gene expression and root system architecture traits. We propose GLO-Roots as a system that has great utility in presenting environmental stimuli to roots in ways that evoke natural adaptive responses and in providing tools for studying the multi-dimensional nature of such processes.
Article and author information
Author details
Copyright
© 2015, Rellán-Álvarez et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 15,119
- views
-
- 2,420
- downloads
-
- 213
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Citations by DOI
-
- 213
- citations for umbrella DOI https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07597
Download links
A two-part list of links to download the article, or parts of the article, in various formats.
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
GLO-Roots: an imaging platform enabling multidimensional characterization of soil-grown root systems
eLife 4:e07597.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.07597
