Root Chip for Growth and Imaging of Arabidopsis Plants

We describe a microfluidic platform that can be used to study the hydroponic growth of Arabidopsis plants with high-resolution visualization of root development and root-pathogen interactions. The platform comprises a set of parallel microchannels with individual input/output ports, where 1-day old germinated seedlings are initially placed. Under optimal conditions, a root system grows in each microchannel and its images are recorded over a 198-h period. Different concentrations of plant growth media show different root growth characteristics. Later, the developed roots are inoculated with two plant pathogens (nematodes and zoospores) and their effect on the live root systems is observed.