Figure 1.
Scheme of the process of carrying out a plant growth experiment using LEGO bricks as building blocks.
The same process can be used to prototype and fabricate other biological experiments.
Figure 2.
Versatility, transparency, and modularity of the LEGO-based environments for plant growth.
a-c) pictures of basic LEGO-based environments growing Fast Plants, Wheat and Corn. The size of the environments can be controlled to match the size of the organism under consideration. d) Timelapse imaging of Lepidium sativum root development through the walls of a LEGO-based environment. The images indicate the time since germination. e) Examples of a LEGO-based system that allows for the dynamic change of the environment of a plant. Two plants (Fast Plants) are grown in isolated environments. The environment is then modified, during growth, to allow the two plants to share the same environment and interact.
Figure 3.
Fabrication of controlled heterogeneities in plant growth environments.
Sequence of diagrams and corresponding images illustrating the generation of a 1D and 2D heterogeneities (solid features, air pockets, and chemical gradients) across a developing root system of a Fast Plant. In the bottom panels, the red linear gradient is of MS nutrients (dye is added for visibility), while the radial gradients are from potassium phosphate (green), potassium nitrate (yellow), calcium chloride (red), and magnesium sulfate (blue).