Assessing Gravitropic Responses in Arabidopsis

Arabidopsis thaliana was the first higher organism to have its genome sequenced and is now widely regarded as the model dicot. Like all plants, Arabidopsis develops distinct growth patterns in response to different environmental stimuli. This can be seen in the gravitropic response of roots. Methods to investigate this particular tropism are presented here. First, we describe a high-throughput time-lapse photographic analysis of root growth and curvature response to gravistimulation allowing the quantification of gravitropic kinetics and growth rate at high temporal resolution. Second, we present a protocol that allows a quantitative evaluation of gravitropic sensitivity using a homemade 2D clinostat. Together, these approaches allow an initial comparative analysis of the key phenomena associated with root gravitropism between different genotypes and/or accessions.