The two nodes of the national FIRI NaPPI complement each other in their ability to measure many structural and physiological parameters of samples by either high throughput or high precision methods.
NaPPI Facilities
The UHEL NaPPI facilities consists of motorised plant transportation and maintenance, such as weighing and watering, in combination with imaging tools for RGB, thermoluminescense and chlorophyll fluorescence. These tools allow comprehensive analysis of plant growth and physiology. Specifications of the instruments.
Small plant system:
- housed in a temperature and humidity controlled phytoscope
- maximum plant screen capacity for one run is 360 small plants in 6×6 cm pots (20 pots per tray) e.g. Arabidopsis or other small seedlings
- total phytoscope capacity is for 1080 small plants
- variable tray lids allow different plant species to be screened (fewer pots per tray or complete trays)
- maximum height of small plants is 50 cm
- in vitro plates and multi-well plates can also be imaged
Imaging units:
- RedGreenBlue (RGB) visible light
- Infrared thermal camera (IR)
- PAM Chlorophyl Fluorescence
Large plant system:
- housed in greenhouse space
- maximum plant screen capacity 270 large plants in 3,5L rose pot OR 5L large pot
- crop plants and trees, maximum 120 cm in height and 100 cm width
Acclimation chamber for dark or light treatments upto 1000 uE.
Imaging units:
- RedGreenBlue (RGB) visible light
- PAM chlorophyl fluorescence
You can find more information about ongoing research projects here:
Viikki Plant Growth Facilities
Viikki's research glasshouses and protected research field make it possible to conduct a wide range of high-quality scientific research and teaching. The services comprise indoor growing facility inside the 2400 m2 greenhouse and outdoor facility in the enclosed 3 ha field.
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/infrastructures/viikki-plant-growth-facilities
The UEF node consists of versatile instrumentation that has high spatial and spectral resolution with an exceptionally wide wavelength range (250 - 5000 nm). The high precision equipment includes several state-of-the-art imaging instruments, some of which are unique and rare in the plant research community.
Spectral images have tens or hundreds of color channels instead of the traditional three in RGB photographs. These allow detection of spectral properties such as relectance, transmittance and fluorescence that can be linked to chemical composition and structural information of plants that is analysed by traditional measurements in metabolomics laboratory. Thus, spectral imaging techniques provide quantifiable information about chemical or structural characteristics of plants without injuring or even touching the sample. Thus, repeatable gathering of information allows, for example, monitoring of stress symtoms. Symptoms of stress, such as drought, pathogen infection or nutrient deficiencies, can be detected much earlier by spectral imaging than by human eye.
Imaging equipment includes:
- UV and MWIR spectral imaging stations
- sensitive CCD camera optimized for UV (220-400nm)
- thermal camera
- cameras for kinetic measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence