RootChip: An integrated microfluidic chip for plant science
Roots take up water and nutrients, respond to changing environmental conditions such as water availability, nutrient concentration, pH and salinity, and they secrete exudates. To understand the molecular basis of acclimation processes within living root cells, technical approaches are needed to perform assays at cellular and subcellular resolution while varying the root environment. We developed a microfluidic chip platform, which integrates live-cell imaging of growth and metabolism of Arabidopsis thaliana roots with rapid modulation of environmental conditions. The ‘RootChip’ has individually addressable chambers for regulating the microenvironment of multiple roots from multiple seedlings in parallel. Roots are grown directly on the chip, preventing any physical damage due to specimen handling. The RootChip was used to monitor time-resolved growth and cytosolic sugar levels at sub-cellular resolution in plants by a genetically encoded fluorescence sensor for glucose and galactose.