Seed Phenotyping
Nowadays, plant research is facing the problematic identification of functional role in thousands of genes. Delays in the characterization of individual genes are dominantly caused by the high complexity and pleiotropy of the observed traits, often hidden under the biological variability. To improve this, technological solutions reducing the environmental impact and specialized analytical tools as the plant phenotyping were introduced.
Sort to understand variability
Distribution of traits as seed shape, size or curvature are used to understand individual lines variability. However, seed properties are directly influencing early postembryonal growth. Using the seed phenotyping it is possible to do both seed-to-plan tracking analysis (phenotyping of seeds during seeding) as well as the analysis of seed stocks distribution (phenotyping during sorting).
Seed phenotypical analysis is performed with a 0° 90 ° (and potentially 45°) spatial rotation, with the option of parameterized sorting by the user-defined thresholds. Histograms are automatically generated during sorting allowing the immediate data inspection. To get maximum of data, we provide advanced image analysis using the cloud service. The export of individual datasets to .csv files for further post-processing is available for each type of experiments.
Technology used in Seed Phenotyping Centre
The phenotype center is based on state-of-the-art technology developed by Labdeers s.r.o. Professional staff has many years of experience in the field of plant molecular biology and genetics. There is also the background of a development team that is ready to provide full support for the analysis of your seeds
Why we don’t process swollen seeds?
There are several reasons to do so. One is the inability of long-term storage of seeds that have not been used for sowing. Another one is, that the swollen seeds give different phenotypical traits than the dry ones. For example, information about the seed-shape or the patterns like puckering is lost using the swollen seeds.
Furthermore, work with dry seeds brings the possibility of non-invasive sorting, with the possibility of their long-term preservation and for the following categorisation. This is ideal for fluorescent seed sorting as well as for the controlled plant growth analysis according to individual seed traits sorted to user-defined categories.
Using dry seeds it is possible, in a special mode, to robotically sow and analyze almost all of the seeds in a tube. Thus processing of lines with limited seed count or even siliques is not a reason to be excluded from the automation process and can be used.