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Genetic Improvement and Adaptation of Mediterranean and Tropical PlantsA PhD student from CIRAD has had his work on cell behaviour in plant imaging published in Nature Methods
15/06/2010 - Press release
Research work by a PhD student, Romain Fernandez, on the automation of 3-D cell recognition, was published on 13 June in the journal Nature Methods. CIRAD, the Languedoc-Roussillon Regional Council and INRIA (Institut national de recherche en informatique et automatique) have been funding his research grant for the past three years.
Two CIRAD researchers assigned to UMR DAP (Plant Development and Improvement Joint Research Unit): Christophe Godin ( Virtual Plants team) and Jean-Luc Verdeil ( PHIV team) co-supervised Romain Fernandez' research work.
The research by the young student, at the interface between cellular imaging and mathematical image processing, was also conducted within the framework of a multidisciplinary partnership with Grégoire Malandain (INRIA Asclépios team at Sophia-Antipolis) and the RDP team headed by Prof. Jan Traas from the ENS (Ecole normale supérieure) in Lyons.
It was published in an article entitled "Imaging plant growth in 4D: robust tissue reconstruction and lineaging at cell resolution", in the journal "Nature Methods", on 13 June. The article shows how, by acquiring images using laser microscopy and developing appropriate algorithms, it is possible to automate 3-D cell recognition and monitor what becomes of those cells over time (cell division and/or growth).
This contribution is a significant advance for the whole community of biologists, and more particularly for plant science. It should provide answers to one of the key developmental biology questions: what contribution does the cell component make to organ growth and the acquisition of their final form?
There are many potential applications for this new methodology, notably for studying the effect of the environment on plant development.
The editorial group of the prestigious journal Nature had already published a short item informing the international community of this advance.
- Category: Science