In this application note, the imaging module of EnSight® multimode plate reader was used to automatically detect the viability of Arabidopsis thaliana, a model organism often used by plant biologists for different research purposes.
A custom script created for the Kaleido software was used to detect seeds at early stages of the germination process: brightfield and fluorescence images were used to count seeds and to automatically compute the percentage of germinated seeds present in each well. Seed germination was modulated by treating seeds with different concentration of the plant hormone abscisic acid or NaCl (salinity stress). MyAssays® Desktop was used for analysis of the kinetic data, that were automatically acquired every 4 hours by EnSight.
The traditional approach based on visual inspection of germinating seeds is time-consuming and has limitations. But with the automated approach, the EnSight can accelerate the quantification of the germination rate of A. thaliana seeds, generating reproducible and robust results. Read this application note to learn more.