Facilities and equipment
We make frequent use of the Utrecht University Phytotron facility and the Netherlands Plant Eco-Phenotyping Center (NPEC) for plant growth and phenotyping and have several well-equiped molecular biology labs.
Themal gradient table
We possess a custom-built thermal gradient table on which plants can be grown and assayed over a defined and adjustable steep temperature gradient dT of 20 o C within one experiment in the range between 5 oC and 40 oC. The gradient table is equipped with three high-end LED tubes providing a homogenous light distribution over the table and has day length control options. For more info please read our methods publication.
Contact: Martijn van Zanten
Open Top Container (OTC) field warming setup
We possess a custom-built open top container (OTC) field warming setup in which shoots of plants can be heated ~3-5 oC above ambient in field conditions using suspended heating cables and passive warming. Next to the warmed OTC, the plot consists of a negative control plot (no warming), an OTC without heating cables (only passive warming). Diverse wild species and crops can be grown and effectively warmed in the setup under otherwise variable climate/weather conditions to study effects of climate warming. The setup is located in the Utrecht University Botanic gardens and was constructed and designed in collaboration with Lili’s protolab.
Contact: Martijn van Zanten
High-end Thermal IR photography and filming
We possess a high end IR thermal camera (FLIR A600 Series) connected to a laptop which can be used to capture detailed thermal profiles of plants (up to the temperature of individual Arabidopsis flowers), materials and setups. See above for example pictures on Arabidopsis rosette temperatures placed on our thermal gradient table.
Contact: Martijn van Zanten
Glovebox system to manipulate the abiotic environment
We posses a custom made glove box that allows dynamic manipulation of temperature (10 - 37 oC) , light (dark - 1000 uE), and gases (Oxygen, CO2 and ethylene). Equipped with an airlock, samples can be collected without changing the environmental conditions. The glovebox allows plants to grow a full life cycle. Thus we are able to mimic several (extreme) abiotic environmental conditions found in nature.
Contact: Rashmi Sasidharan
