Biotech Updates

RootChips: Physiologists' Tool for Root Studies

December 21, 2011

Plant physiologists conducting root research and plant growth would now have a new tool to determine root-nutrient interactions. Researchers from Carnegie and Stanford University led by Guido Grossman have developed the RootChip that can enable the study of the effects of various nutrients and other growth environments in plant roots.

"This new tool provides a major advance for studying root biology at the cellular and subcellular level," said Wolf Frommer, director of Carnegie's plant biology department. "The growth conditions can be freely varied over several days, allowing us to monitor actual growth and development of roots and root hairs and using our optical biosensors to study nutrient acquisition and carbon sequestration in real time."

Details on this story can be seen at http://carnegiescience.edu/news/new_tool_offers_unprecedented_access_root_studies