Project properties
Title Developing automated phenotyping: using timelapse imaging to track seedling growth in stressful conditions (flexible start date)
Group Plant Physiology, Laboratory of
Project type thesis
Credits 18-39
Supervisor(s) Dr. Jesse Küpers
Examiner(s) Dr. Charlotte Gommers
Contact info Jesse.kupers@wur.nl
Begin date 2024/08/19
End date 2025/07/15
Description Chloroplasts have been identified as important hubs for abiotic stress adaptation. Stress can lead to chloroplast malfunction, in response to which they send out so-called retrograde signals to the nucleus to change transcription and induce developmental adaptation. This adaptation includes changes in seedling morphology such as altered cotyledon development and hypocotyl elongation. However, most of these phenotypes are measured on a single timepoint after several days of treatment. To follow the growth in more detail, we use a timelapse imager that takes pictures every 20 minutes. The resulting videos nicely show seedling development over time, but performing measurements on the resulting videos/sequences is horribly laborious.

For this project, I am looking for a talented student to automate these measurements. If a nice method is developed, it can be used to answer many questions on seedling development. The possible applications of such a method go beyond the retrograde signalling field, and can be used by many plant scientists.

*Preferably MSc, but BSc students with relevant experience/affinity are more than welcome to apply too!
**start and end dates are flexible
Used skills Bioinformatics
Image analysis
Software development
Requirements Required: Affinity with bioinformatics
Optional: Knowledge of plant physiology and molecular biology