Methods
Selected methods in applied plant stress research
Notice: None of the methods listed here are under special recommendation by Plantstress.com
GENERAL STRESS METHODS
Obtain climatic data for your location
New handbook for standardized measurement of plant functional traits worldwide (via DiverSus – mainly ecology)
Pollen germination and pollen tube elongation
Pollen viability/sterility tests – Item1 ; Item2
Practical approaches to plant volatile analysis
Soluble carbohydrates (SEE also WSC under drought)
Hormone Analysis – problems and solutions
Phytohormones: abscisic acid, jasmonic acid and salicylic acid in Arabidopsis
Ethylene determination in plants
CHLOROPHYLL FLUORESCENCE – PRINCIPLES AND APPS (See book)
- Relations to Stress
- imaging fluorescence
- integration with thermography.
- PhotosynQ – a light portable leaf measurement system
- An example of application (crop plant).
- An example of application (Arabidopsis).
- Check this site for instruments.
Xylem sap collection and extraction to determine abscisic acid
Proline analysis – The still popular fast method by Bates et al. (1973) – and more
SPECTRAL CANOPY SIGNATURES AND REMOTE SENSING FOR ASSESSING CROP STRESS AND PRODUCTIVITY:
- Leaf canopy temperature and its measurement with the infrared thermometer in the field
- Relations to water indices in soil and plant
- Relations to yield
- Equipment examples: GreenSeeker ; Yara-N Sensor
- NDVI measurement – a practical example from CIMMYT
- Spectral reflectance for phenotyping “stay-green” (“non senescence”).
- Thermal imaging (heat sensing camera) for identifying plant response to drought stress
- Thermal and spectral imaging of plant stress
- “FLIR-one” – A thermal imaging attachment for your smart phone (not yet verified for plant work)
Plant Image Analysis – a collection of software
Wheat Physiological Breeding II: A Field Guide to Wheat Phenotyping. (CIMMYT publication) (Large pdf file).
Various Plant Biology Protocols (links on this site)
Measuring the greenhouse environment
To appreciate modern advanced instrumentation – See how leaf gas exchange was measured in the field in 1970’s
Using pots in plant research – not so simple
- The pot experiment – How to avoid common pitfalls.
- The Art of Growing Plants for Experimental Purpose
- Managing pot water status – a critique
- Applying experimental ‘drought’ to pots – the interpretation of results
DROUGHT STRESS
Soil moisture methods (review and tests)
PLANT WATER STATUS
- The pressure chamber for plant water status measurement
- Relative water content (RWC) as a measure of plant water status
- Detailed discussion of measurements and their theoretical basis – including more intricate methods such as thermocouple psychrometry
- Osmotic adjustment and its measurement
- Fast indirect estimate of osmotic adjustment for large breeding populations
- See remote sensing methods of plant stress – above
A NEW NON-EVASIVE TURGOR RELATED MONITORING OF PLANT WATER STATUS
An electronic potometer for studying plant water use in real time
Stomatal condcutance (an example from CIMMYT; instruments may vary)
Rapid colorimetric assay for epicuticular wax – Tested against the classical gravimetric method
‘Stay-green’ laboratory assay under non-stress conditions (sorghum)
Using PEG for controlling plant water status in experiments
o XYLEM VULNERABILITY TO CAVITATION AND EMBOLISM IN WOODY PLANTS
§ Conduits in wood – their measurements and the assessment of hydraulic vulnerability
§ More on Xylem vulnerability curves
§ Visualizations of Drought-Induced Embolism
§ Methods of measuring Vulnerability to cavitation
o IMPROVING WHEAT GRAIN FILLING UNDER STRESS BY STEM RESERVE UTILIZATION
§ Water Soluble Carbohydrates (WSC) determination in stems (wheat example from CIMMYT).
§ Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR) for quantifying stem carbohydrates
o The Drought (Stress) Resistance Index – Estimating drought resistance in terms of yield or biomass
o C-isotope composition as a measure of intrinsic water-use efficiency
o THE MANAGED DROUGHT STRESS ENVIRONMENT IN THE FIELD
§ An Australian case for wheat
§ Rainout shelters – some basic principles of design and operation
SALINITY STRESS
o Salt tolerance protocols; by Bado S. et al. 2016 (open access by IAEA and Springer)
o Comparing nutrient solution with soil and field screening for tolerance
o Screening methods for salinity tolerance: a case study with tetraploid wheat
HEAT STRESS
o Cell Membrane Stability (CMS) by the electro-conductivity method
o Chlorophyll content reduction under heat stress – see Leaf chlorophyll
o Chlorophyll Fluorescence (see under General Stress above)
o Pollen dysfunction under heat stress (see under General Stress above)
o High-Throughput Screening of Temperature-Sensitive rice grain a-Amylase
o Heat tolerance phenotyping in the growth chamber – important issues to consider
COLD STRESS
o Cold tolerance tests in temperate cereals
o Cold tolerance tests in rice
o Chlorophyll Fluorescence for chilling stress (see under General Stress above)
o Pollen dysfunction under chilling stress (see under General Stress above)
MINERAL TOXICITY STRESS
o Aluminum resistance screening assay (pigeon pea)
o Aluminum resistance screening assay (cereals – review)
o Evaluation of aluminum tolerance by hematoxylin root staining
WATERLOGGING STRESS
OXIDATIVE STRESS
o Fingerprinting Antioxidative Activities in Plants (Contributed by Livia Saleh and Christoph Plieth)
o Metabolic and Proteomic Markers for Oxidative Stress. New Tools.
