SCREEN House

The phenotyping system SCREEN House is used for screening of the shoot structure and function of different mono- and dicotyledonous plant species (e.g. canola, maize, tomato, cereals) under different environmental scenarios in a greenhouse. The major focus is the investigation and screening for genotypes with efficient use of resources such as water and nutrients.

The SCREEN House is equipped with a robot which can transport any plant within the greenhouse to the imaging station for automated image analysis. The imaging is routinely performed with three cameras which can be located at different positions to efficiently assess the plant structural properties. Additionally the SCREEN House has a balance for automated monitoring of the water and nutrient status of the plants. Thus, the SCREEN House enables continuous and non-invasive analysis of shoot properties over a period of several weeks. Additional physiological measurements such as assessment of photosynthesis or pigment content can be performed providing additional useful information about the status of the plants.

Selected Publications

Nakhforoosh, A., Bodewein, T., Fiorani, F., Bodner, G. (2016) Identification of Water Use Strategies at Early Growth Stages in Durum Wheat from Shoot Phenotyping and Physiological Measurements. Frontiers in Plant Science. 2016;7:1155. [doi:10.3389/fpls.2016.01155]

Scharr, H., Briese, C., Embgenbroich, P., Fischbach, A., Fiorani, F., Müller-Linow, M. (2017) Fast High Resolution Volume Carving for 3D Plant Shoot Reconstruction Frontiers in Functional Plant Ecology 8,1680 [10.3389/fpls.2017.01680]