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    Rights statement: Copyright 2016 American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Biomicrofluidics, 10, (3) 2016 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4950998 This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.

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Humidity assay for studying plant-pathogen interactions in miniature controlled discrete humidity environments with good throughput

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  • Zhen Xu
  • Huawei Jiang
  • Binod Bihari Sahu
  • Sekhar Kambakam
  • Prashant Singh
  • Xinran Wang
  • Qiugu Wang
  • Madan K. Bhattacharyya
  • Liang Dong
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Article number034108
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>05/2016
<mark>Journal</mark>Biomicrofluidics
Issue number3
Volume10
Number of pages12
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date18/05/16
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This paper reports a highly economical and accessible approach to generate different discrete relative humidity conditions in spatially separated wells of a modified multi-well plate for humidity assay of plant-pathogen interactions with good throughput. We demonstrated that a discrete humidity gradient could be formed within a few minutes and maintained over a period of a few days inside the device. The device consisted of a freeway channel in the top layer, multiple compartmented wells in the bottom layer, a water source, and a drying agent source. The combinational effects of evaporation, diffusion, and convection were synergized to establish the stable discrete humidity gradient. The device was employed to study visible and molecular disease phenotypes of soybean in responses to infection by Phytophthora sojae, an oomycete pathogen, under a set of humidity conditions, with two near-isogenic soybean lines, Williams and Williams 82, that differ for a Phytophthora resistance gene (Rps1-k). Our result showed that at 63% relative humidity, the transcript level of the defense gene GmPR1 was at minimum in the susceptible soybean line Williams and at maximal level in the resistant line Williams 82 following P. sojae CC5C infection. In addition, we investigated the effects of environmental temperature, dimensional and geometrical parameters, and other configurational factors on the ability of the device to generate miniature humidity environments. This work represents an exploratory effort to economically and efficiently manipulate humidity environments in a space-limited device and shows a great potential to facilitate humidity assay of plant seed germination and development, pathogen growth, and plant-pathogen interactions. Since the proposed device can be easily made, modified, and operated, it is believed that this present humidity manipulation technology will benefit many laboratories in the area of seed science, plant pathology, and plant-microbe biology, where humidity is an important factor that influences plant disease infection, establishment, and development.

Bibliographic note

Copyright 2016 American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Biomicrofluidics, 10, (3) 2016 and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4950998 This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.