Products and Services

Phenotype Screening Corporation offers products and services to cover a wide range of applications.

Proposal Work

We can provide scoping studies to support your future proposals. Depending on the subject of the proposal and other circumstances, we can perform an initial proof of concept experiment, or we may have already performed similar work that can be used to demonstrate the feasibility of your proposal. Our role in your proposal can be as a co-investigator, subcontractor, or as supplier of goods and services. We can assist you by providing proposal content, illustrations, our budget, CVs, C&P, etc. We have written successful proposals that have collaborations with academic and commercial entities. The choice of lead investigator is usually determined by the requirements of the funding source and the objectives of the proposal.

In House Research for Customers

Germination and Growth Service

Phenotype Screening Corporation will receive your seed samples, germinate them and grow them in our Plant Growth Container and Substrate sets. These sets of low density polymeric foam are disease and pest free. All nutrients, water, stressor materials, disease, pests and temperature are under the control of the experimenter.

Root Imaging Service

Plant root systems grown in our x-ray transparent Plant Growth Container and Substrate sets can be imaged using one of our low energy digital x-ray systems. Below figure shows an exploded view of plant, growth substrate, container, and x-ray imaging geometry.

Rice plant placed in measurement chamber of our commercial RootViz system. X-Ray shutter is on left and camera is on right. When x-ray shutter is closed all x-ray radiation is safely contained. Cabinet door interlocks prevent accidental exposure to x-rays. Note that plant is rotated 90 degrees prior to imaging.

We maintain an in-house x-ray system for the x-ray imaging of plant root systems. We use this system to image plants that we grow in house as well as root systems sent to us by customers. This system is highly reconfigurable.

Assemble X-Ray Images into a Photomontage

Depending on the size of container used and the choice of 2D or stereo imaging, a plant root system may require anywhere from four to 160 individual images to provide complete coverage. We have developed software that automatically performs gray scale enhancement, distortion correction, cropping, appending individual images into a single overall image of the root system, combination of two images into a stereo pair and inclusion of textual information.

Analysis of Images

We have developed segmentation software that can isolate roots from the noisy background of moisture inclusions in the substrate, shadowing of small roots by larger roots, and varying gray scale levels of images. We can then apply additional analysis methods that will be determined by the customer's interests. Below is a reduced resolution assembled image of a USG5601T soybean root system at day 46. Anaglyphic glasses are required to see the stereo effect.

The soybean root system is segmented out using our automated analysis software. The segmented image is shown below. Note that this image is created without user input or operator assistance and is ready for further analysis.

Complete X-Ray Systems

Plant Scientists who have a large throughput requirement or some kind of proprietary application may wish to purchase a complete x-ray system. Because of the wide variety of plants and container sizes, each application will dictate the details of cabinet size, stage travel, etc. Our standard commercial system is shown below.

The commercial cabinet system features three axes of motion for large photomontages as well as stereo and multi-angle viewing and has a 100 x 100 mm x-ray camera. The fixture for our 200mm wide x 500mm tall container is shown.

Our x-ray systems are controlled entirely by software, making possible automated image acquisition sequences of the entire plant container area.

Because of the precision and repeatability of our systems, large photomontages can be accurately and reliably assembled using our support software.

Plant Growth Containers and Substrate

Phenotype Screening Corporation offers a wide range of substrate and container sizes to suit the needs of various plants and growth periods. Sizes vary from 50mm wide x 200mm tall up to 200mm wide x 1000mm tall. Larger sizes are possible. Please note that our standard commercial x-ray system has a maximum capacity for a 200mm x 500mm sized container.

We offer a choice of growth substrate materials. Our current recommendation is EPS beads.

Customer Support

Phenotype Screening Corporation supports our customers with on-site and phone support. We offer on site operator training, hardware and software support for buyers of our commercial systems. We also offer container selection, growth protocol and nutrient solution advice to our customers.

Your success is our success.