Abstract
The convenient model Arabidopsis thaliana has allowed tremendous advances in plant genetics and physiology, in spite of only being a weed. It has also unveiled the main molecular networks governing, among others, abiotic stress responses. Through the use of the latest genomic tools, Arabidopsis research is nowadays being translated to agronomically interesting crop models such as tomato, but at a lagging pace. Knowledge transfer has been hindered by invariable differences in plant architecture and behaviour, as well as the divergent direct objectives of research in Arabidopsis vs. crops compromise transferability. In this sense, phenotype translation is still a very complex matter. Here, we point out the challenges of “translational phenotyping” in the case study of drought stress phenotyping in Arabidopsis and tomato. After briefly defining and describing drought stress and survival strategies, we compare drought stress protocols and phenotyping techniques most commonly used in the two species, and discuss their potential to gain insights, which are truly transferable between species. This review is intended to be a starting point for discussion about translational phenotyping approaches among plant scientists, and provides a useful compendium of methods and techniques used in modern phenotyping for this specific plant pair as a case study.
Highlights
The quest for drought resistant genotypes has been, for a long time one of the principal challenges in plant sciences: Drought stress can seriously hamper crop development leading to a decrease in yield, with serious socio-economic consequences [1]
To address the challenges in translational phenotyping, we present a selection of standard drought stress phenotyping approaches in Arabidopsis and tomato, summarized in Table 2, and highlight similarities and differences between those approaches when applied to either species
As drought stress impairs photosynthetic activity and enhanced chlorophyll fluorescence is a direct result of this impairment [119], the quantification of chlorophyll fluorescence is a standard procedure in stress phenotyping both in Arabidopsis and horticultural crops [119,120]
Summary
The quest for drought resistant genotypes has been, for a long time one of the principal challenges in plant sciences: Drought stress can seriously hamper crop development leading to a decrease in yield, with serious socio-economic consequences [1]. Possibilities and issues of Arabidopsis-to-crop genomic translation have been discussed elsewhere [14,15,16,17], the problematics of translating phenotyping studies have not been addressed until now. Despite both being widely used models in physiology, the different nature of Arabidopsis and crops prohibits an absolute equalizing of phenotyping methods and leads to different endpoints. Certain physiological variables and fruit-related traits are easier to quantify in tomato This leads to the paradox that physiological phenotypes, described in model crops, would profit from the molecular underpinnings being investigated in Arabidopsis.
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