Fig. 1

GrowScreen-Agar, mechanical setup for automated imaging roots and shoots of plants grown in agar-filled plates. The Petri dishes are fixed in red holders, which are moved in a rectangular frame by using pneumatic cylinders (a, b). At one position of the setup, Petri dishes (b) are optically accessible and images of root and shoot are taken (c, d). Representative original colour image of four Arabidopsis shoots taken by the top camera (c); part of an original grey scale root image taken by the bottom camera (e) and colour-coded image (quantified with the image-based software GROWSCREEN-ROOT) with primary root (green) and lateral roots (red) of an Arabidopsis plant (f). In total 70 Petri dishes containing up to 280 Arabidopsis plants fit into the GrowScreen-Agar system. During image acquisition, the opening above the bottom camera (a) is closed by a cover panel