Our research infrastructure combines precision-controlled environments and advanced phenotyping tools to simulate and monitor plant responses under realistic and reproducible conditions.
Controlled-environment platform for reproducible abiotic stress trials
Our new phytotron enables large-scale, multi-factorial trials in a fully controlled environment.
By allowing wide programmable ranges of temperature, humidity, and light intensity — as well as defined variation kinetics of these parameters — the growth chamber becomes a true measuring chamber.
It is designed to reproduce thermal, light, salinity, and water availability stresses, individually or in combination, enhancing the accuracy of physiological and imaging measurements performed within it.
Key specifications
High-tech greenhouse for large-scale phenotyping
Located within the University of Turin’s research campus, the PhenoPlant greenhouse integrates advanced phenotyping technologies for real-time monitoring of plant growth and stress responses. The system supports large plants and multi-week trials, bridging the gap between controlled and field conditions.
Key specifications
We integrate state-of-the-art analytical platforms to quantify photosynthetic performance, biomass accumulation, and stress physiology. All systems are interconnected through automated data acquisition pipelines for precise, scalable, and comparable results.
When unfavorable environmental conditions prevail, a plant’s ability to survive and resume growth depends on how quickly it can adopt protective responses and acclimate to stress. Maintaining an efficient photosynthetic apparatus is crucial — damage to this system comes at a high metabolic cost and slows down recovery. That’s why regulating photosynthetic activity is one of the plant’s most fundamental stress responses.
To understand these responses, we analyze the trade off between water loss and carbon intake on the leaf surface scale and how plant manage light energy during photosynthesis.
Under stress, plants employ several immediate defense strategies, including:
These processes can all be quantified and visualized using gas exchange and fluorimetry techniques.
Measures the amount of CO₂ absorbed and H₂O transpired, offering insights into the plant’s intrinsic water use efficiency.
Analyzes fluorescence emitted by chlorophyll, revealing how photosynthetic systems perform under stress conditions.
By combining direct observation of photosynthetic function with measurement techniques refined over 70 years of scientific research, these analyses allow scientists to:
Proven responsive indices capable of identifying stress phenomenon from the early stage and defining it’s intensity
Allow standardization if the measurements so that observed differences can be attributed to the plant’s physiological state rather than environmental disturbance during measurements
Be Supported by solid scientific foundation for clear implementation of the results
Partner with our team to accelerate your research, validate biostimulant performance, and advance plant science through precision trials.