SPIRO – the automated Petri plate imaging platform designed by biologists, for biologists

Author:

Ohlsson Jonas A.1,Leong Jia Xuan234,Elander Pernilla H.1,Ballhaus Florentine1,Holla Sanjana1,Dauphinee Adrian N.1,Johansson Johan5,Lommel Mark36,Hofmann Gero3,Betnér Staffan7,Sandgren Mats1,Schumacher Karin3,Bozhkov Peter V.1,Minina Elena A.13ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Molecular Sciences, Uppsala BioCenter Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnean Center for Plant Biology Uppsala SE‐750 07 Sweden

2. Department of Algal Development and Evolution Max Planck Institute for Biology Tübingen Tübingen 72076 Germany

3. Centre for Organismal Studies (COS) Heidelberg University Im Neuenheimer Feld 230 Heidelberg 69120 Germany

4. Center for Plant Molecular Biology (ZMBP) University of Tübingen Auf der Morgenstelle 32 Tübingen D‐72076 Germany

5. Johan's 3D printing service Uppsala 75471 Sweden

6. Department of Microbiology Saarland University Campus A1.5 Saarbrücken 66123 Germany

7. Northern Registry Centre, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine Umeå University Umeå 90187 Sweden

Abstract

SUMMARYPhenotyping of model organisms grown on Petri plates is often carried out manually, despite the procedures being time‐consuming and laborious. The main reason for this is the limited availability of automated phenotyping facilities, whereas constructing a custom automated solution can be a daunting task for biologists. Here, we describe SPIRO, the Smart Plate Imaging Robot, an automated platform that acquires time‐lapse photographs of up to four vertically oriented Petri plates in a single experiment, corresponding to 192 seedlings for a typical root growth assay and up to 2500 seeds for a germination assay. SPIRO is catered specifically to biologists' needs, requiring no engineering or programming expertise for assembly and operation. Its small footprint is optimized for standard incubators, the inbuilt green LED enables imaging under dark conditions, and remote control provides access to the data without interfering with sample growth. SPIRO's excellent image quality is suitable for automated image processing, which we demonstrate on the example of seed germination and root growth assays. Furthermore, the robot can be easily customized for specific uses, as all information about SPIRO is released under open‐source licenses. Importantly, uninterrupted imaging allows considerably more precise assessment of seed germination parameters and root growth rates compared with manual assays. Moreover, SPIRO enables previously technically challenging assays such as phenotyping in the dark. We illustrate the benefits of SPIRO in proof‐of‐concept experiments which yielded a novel insight on the interplay between autophagy, nitrogen sensing, and photoblastic response.

Funder

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse

Publisher

Wiley

Subject

Cell Biology,Plant Science,Genetics

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