CT Scanners Help in Efforts to Improve Crop Yields

A multidisciplinary team of scientists at Nottingham University are using advanced X-ray micro Computed Tomography (CT) scanners to select the most efficient plant root structures for maximum uptake of water and nutrients in efforts to improve crop yields. 

“For the first time in 10,000 years of plant breeding, we can see a plant’s root architecture directly in the soil, as it is in the field and use this information to select the most efficient varieties for farmers to grow,” said Malcolm Bennett, Professor of Plant Sciences.

The University’s Hounsfield Facility on the Sutton Boninington campus – officially opened on September 18 by Professor Jackie Hunter, CE of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) - is equipped with three CT scanners capable of imaging objects as fine as a soil particle or a root hair to a fully mature root system. The centre has a fully automated greenhouse which is manned by the laser guided robot, needed to feed the 1m long, 80kg samples to the largest scanner.

The research centre has been named after Sir Godfrey Hounsfield, the electrical engineer from Newark in Nottinghamshire, who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his part in developing the diagnostic technique of X-ray Computed Tomography.

Sacha Mooney, Professor of Soil Physics said: “We have finally overcome a major obstacle to our research. The opacity of soil prevented us from being able to see how roots actually grow in their natural environment. Using X-rays we can now ‘see-through’ the soil and visualise roots in 3D, offering new insights into the previously ‘hidden half’ of a plant. These new imaging technologies combined with biological resources have helped to create a world-leading facility with the tools that will radically improve our efforts to increase crop performance.”

Experts in the University’s School of Computer Science have developed RooTrak image analysis software to identify root material within those images; it can also build a 3D model of the root system that can be viewed from any angle.

The new centre has been funded by the European Research Council, BBSRC, the Wolfson Foundation and The University of Nottingham.