About

Developing new crop varieties to feed an expanding world population is one of this century's most challenging research imperatives. Australian scientists are being provided with the capability to take a leading role. Research into innovative high-yield and disease-resistant crop varieties will be driven at the two state-of-the-art phenomics facilities in Adelaide and Canberra, collectively known as the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility.

The Adelaide node of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility, The Plant Accelerator™, offers:

• A range of controlled growth environments in new, high quality facilities.
• Over 1 km of conveyors delivering radio-tagged plants automatically to state-of-the art imaging stations controlled by high capacity computing equipment.
• Equipment to image shoots in visible, near-infrared and far infrared spectra.
• Equipment for fluorescence imaging of shoots.
• Equipment to allow near-infrared imaging of pots to obtain a measure of water content in the soil.
• Automatic programmable watering to weight of plants on the conveyor system.
• Professional consultation in plant phenomics and experimental design.
• Dedicated bioinformatic support with data management and analysis.
• Access to a critical mass of experts in plant and soil science located at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide.

The Building

The Plant Accelerator™ is a purpose built plant phenomics facility, which offers a range of greenhouses, high-throughput imaging stations, growth rooms, laboratories and seed storage space.

Its double glazed acrylic skin provides good insulation properties and transmits the entire spectrum of UV light, ensuring that internal environmental conditions in the greenhouse are as close as possible to those in the field.

The building contains 34 greenhouses in PC2 and non-PC2 areas ranging in size from 24m² to 48 m² and 72 m².

Fitted with evaporative and/or refrigerated cooling, variance in temperature in the greenhouse can be pre-programmed to reflect external conditions (e.g. cool nights, moderate mornings, hot afternoons).

Some greenhouses are designed for growing rice, whilst others are fitted with total block out screens enabling day lengths to be shortened. In addition, some greenhouses are quarantine approved to allow plant growth from imported seeds.

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Plant Imaging - Smarthouse

The building contains two large areas referred to as Smarthouses™, which offer a conveyor system and imaging stations (LemnaTec Scanalyzer) for the non-destructive phenotyping of plants.

A total of 2,400 carts can be transported at any given time on the conveyor system via five imaging chambers:

• Far infrared - Leaf temperature
• Near infrared - Leaf water content
• Near infrared (roots) - Soil water content
• Visible light (RGB) - Shoot mass, leaf number, shape, angle, other morphometric data,
  and leaf colour and senescence
• Fluorescence imaging - Plant health (state of chlorophyll)