Growth Stage-Based Phenotypic Profiling of Plants

Recent high-throughput methods for the analysis of biological samples are raising the possibility of data integration between investigators and even across technology platforms. In plant biology, integration of data can be problematic, since heterogeneity of plant growth conditions and phenotypes result in data sets that are not consistent or easily comparable. In this chapter, we describe the development of a plant phenotyping platform based on a growth stage scale that will aid in the generation of coherent data. While the emphasis is on the development of a phenotyping platform for Arabidopsis , the aim of this chapter is to describe principles that can be applied to other plant systems as well. Additionally, we discuss approaches for data analysis and quality control.