NEBRASKA: EPSCoR researchers published in Plant Methods
University of Nebraska-Lincoln researchers Mars Lopez-Guerrero, Peng Wang, Felicia Phares, Daniel Schachtman, Sophie Alvarez and Karin van Dijk were recently published in Plant Methods, “A glass bead semi-hydroponic system for intact maize root exudate analysis and phenotyping.”
This work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation EPSCOR to fund The Center for Root and Rhizobiome Innovation (Award OIA-1557417, Nebraska EPSCoR RII Track-1: Center for Root and Rhizobiome Innovation).
Although there have been numerous studies describing plant growth systems for root exudate collection, a common limitation is that these systems require disruption of the plant root system to facilitate exudate collection. Here, we present a newly designed semi-hydroponic system that uses glass beads as solid support to simulate soil impedance, which combined with drip irrigation, facilitates growth of healthy maize plants, collection and analysis of root exudates, and phenotyping of the roots with minimal growth disturbance or root damage.