Growing plants

Pilot leaf growth experiment

The purpose of this experiment was to compare leaf growth of 3 Arabidopsis genotypes (Ws, Ler, Col-4) grown under the same target environmental conditions in the laboratories of most participating partners, and to assess the biological and inter-laboratory variability. Based on the statistical analysis of leaf growth and several morphometric parameters, it was concluded that it is difficult to reach the same phenotype at different locations even if a very precise and common protocol is followed, including the use of identical material shipped from a central location (seed batch, soil, nutrient solution, pots). For this reason, the consortium has identified one core phenotyping platform (LEPSE, Montpellier) for all experiments involving the analysis of the same set of samples in different molecular profiling platforms.

Massonnet C, Vile D, Fabre J, Hannah MA, Caldana C, Lisec J, Beemster GT, Meyer RC, Messerli G, Gronlund JT, Perkovic J, Wigmore E, May S, Bevan MW, Meyer C, Rubio-Díaz S, Weigel D, Micol JL, Buchanan-Wollaston V, Fiorani F, Walsh S, Rinn B, Gruissem W, Hilson P, Hennig L, Willmitzer L, Granier C. (2010) Probing the reproducibility of leaf growth and molecular phenotypes: a comparison of three Arabidopsis accessions cultivated in ten laboratories. Plant Physiol.  Apr;152(4):2142-57. PMID : 20200072