Forschungsinfrastruktur

Vienna Biocenter Core Facilities GmbH (VBCF)

Wien | Website

Short Description

The Plant Sciences Facility operates 22 high quality and state-of-the-art plant growth chambers. Several chambers are capable of providing exceptional environmental conditions allowing precise environmental simulation across different climate zones. In addition one of our chambers is equipped with an automated, chamber integrated, non-destructive plant screening system for objective, reproducible and high-throughput assessment of plant phenotypic traits.

Contact Person

Jakub Jez

Research Services

Basic plant growth:

All growth chambers provide standard plant growth conditions with minor deviations from the set points, independent of external environmental influencing parameters. Temperature, humidity, light and water supply are computer controlled, fully automated and corresponding parameters are continuously graphed and documented.

High-throughput plant phenotyping:

For the objective, reproducible and high-throughput investigation of morphological phenotypes, PlantS operates an automated, chamber integrated, non-destructive plant phenotyping system:

- visible light sensor
- top-view imaging
- chamber integrated system (low temp. chamber)
- capacity: 1260 plants/pots
- image analysis parameters inter alia: projected leaf area, convex hull area, convex hull perimeter, compactness, roundness, leaf segmentation, count of leaves, leaf morphology, color classifications etc.

Environmental simulation:

Several chambers are capable of providing exceptional environmental conditions like

- low temperature (≥ -15°C)
- high temperature (≤ +50°C)
- variable light intensities & light spectra (LED-light: UV-/blue-/white- & red-light)
- variable gas atmosphere conditions (e.g. CO2)

allowing precise environmental simulation across different climate zones and the simulation of various environmental stress conditions.

Methods & Expertise for Research Infrastructure

Basic plant growth:

All growth chambers provide standard plant growth conditions with minor deviations from the set points, independent of external environmental influencing parameters. Temperature, humidity, light and water supply are computer controlled, fully automated and corresponding parameters are continuously graphed and documented.

High-throughput plant phenotyping:

For the objective, reproducible and high-throughput investigation of morphological phenotypes, PlantS operates an automated, chamber integrated, non-destructive plant phenotyping system:

- visible light sensor
- top-view imaging
- chamber integrated system (low temp. chamber)
- capacity: 1260 plants/pots
- image analysis parameters inter alia: projected leaf area, convex hull area, convex hull perimeter, compactness, roundness, leaf segmentation, count of leaves, leaf morphology, color classifications etc.

Environmental simulation:

Several chambers are capable of providing exceptional environmental conditions like

- low temperature (≥ -15°C)
- high temperature (≤ +50°C)
- variable light intensities & light spectra (LED-light: UV-/blue-/white- & red-light)
- variable gas atmosphere conditions (e.g. CO2)

allowing precise environmental simulation across different climate zones and the simulation of various environmental stress conditions.

Allocation to Core Facility

The Plant Sciences Facility (PlantS)