Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost Plant Growth Chamber that Permits Video-Timelapse Recordings of Root Systems

Abstract:

Previous work on time-lapse imaging of plant roots have yielded amazing insights into the rapid kinetics of the secondary messengers involved in growing roots.  Although such experiments provide exceptional resolution of the developing root, they can be costly.  A typical time-lapse fluorescence microscopy (TLFM) setup can easily start at about $7,000 per imaging system.  Here we describe efforts in implementing an alternative, low-cost Raspberry PiCAM solution for imaging root growth in the fern model organism, Ceratopteris richardii.  Although our imaging system lacks the cellular resolution typical of TLFM, we do provide anatomical recordings of developing roots in custom-built growth chambers.  Our root growth chambers are constructed of laser-cut acrylic panels of dimensions dictated by on-site temperature-controlled plant-growth incubators.  Spectral analysis reveals that the acrylic panels permit all wavelengths in the visible-light range, and thus permit photosynthesis.  Laser-cut acrylic panels are assembled via bonding agents that were determined to be nontoxic to ferns.  Our imaging system provides many benefits.  Firstly, we can control all aspects of the root growth experiment, such as the precise nutritional composition of the growth media as well as the presence of bacterial and fungal species known to impact root growth in plants.  Although we showcase here results in ferns, the imaging system is amenable to seed plants in future experiments.  The entirety of our approach, from design to implementation of both the root growth chamber & the PiCAM imager, is estimated to cost ~100-fold less than existing TLFM approaches.  This savings can also feed statistical replication.