Time course measurements of leaf elevation angles during shade avoidance response in Arabidopsis thaliana using Raspberry Pi computers and computer vision technique.

Abstract

Shade avoidance response in plants includes a higher leaf elevation angle. A cost-effective and noninvasive high throughput image analysis technique was used to measure the dynamics of leaf elevation angles during shade avoidance response in Arabidopsis . Time-lapse images were taken from the top and the side of a plant using Raspberry Pi computers. The leaf elevation index for each plant is determined from the plant dimensions measured by an image analysis software package PlantCV . This method was used to monitor the dynamics of changing leaf elevation angles in wild-type plants and in shade avoidance mutants pif4-2pif5-3 and pif7-2 plants.