Monitoring Plant Drought Stress Response Using Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy

We present a novel measurement setup for monitoring changes in leaf water status using nondestructive terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). Previous studies on a variety of plants showed the principal applicability of THz-TDS. In such setups, decreasing leaf water content directly correlates...

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Published inPlant physiology (Bethesda) Vol. 164; no. 4; pp. 1571 - 1577
Main Authors Born, Norman, Behringer, David, Liepelt, Sascha, Beyer, Sarah, Schwerdtfeger, Michael, Ziegenhagen, Birgit, Koch, Martin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States American Society of Plant Biologists 01.04.2014
SeriesFocus on Water
Subjects
Abies - physiology
Biomass
Breakthrough Technologies
Breakthrough Technologies - Focus
Data transmission
Dehydration
Drought
Droughts
environmental factors
Gravimetry
Moisture content
monitoring
Oral rehydration
Plants
Pulmonary wedge pressure
Seedlings
Seedlings - physiology
Spectroscopy
stress response
Stress, Physiological
Terahertz Spectroscopy - methods
Time Factors
Water
water stress
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Summary:We present a novel measurement setup for monitoring changes in leaf water status using nondestructive terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). Previous studies on a variety of plants showed the principal applicability of THz-TDS. In such setups, decreasing leaf water content directly correlates with increasing THz transmission. Our new system allows for continuous, nondestructive monitoring of the water status of multiple individual plants each at the same constant leaf position. It overcomes previous drawbacks, which were mainly due to the necessity of relocating the plants. Using needles of silver fir (Abies alba) seedlings as test subjects, we show that the transmission varies along the main axis of a single needle due to a variation in thickness. Therefore, the relocation of plants during the measuring period, which was necessary in the previous THz-TDS setups, should be avoided. Furthermore, we show a highly significant correlation between gravimetric water content and respective THz transmission. By monitoring the relative change in transmission, we were able to narrow down the permanent wilting point of the seedlings. Thus, we established groups of plants with well-defined levels of water stress that could not be detected visually. This opens up the possibility for a broad range of genetic and physiological experiments.
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www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.113.233601
D.B. and N.B. performed most of the experiments; N.B. provided technical assistance to D.B.; D.B. handled the plants, and S.L. supervised him; D.B., N.B., S.L., S.B., and M.S. designed experiments; D.B. and N.B. analyzed the data; and B.Z. and M.K. conceived of the project. D.B. and N.B. wrote the paper with input from B.Z., M.K., S.B., and S.L.
The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Norman Born (norman.born@physik.uni-marburg.de).
These authors contributed equally to the article.
ISSN:0032-0889
1532-2548
1532-2548
DOI:10.1104/pp.113.233601