3D digitization and modeling of flower mutants of Arabidopsis thaliana

The recently developed 3D plant modeling tools have strongly increased the potential of model applications in crop sciences. Visualisation of specific genotypes of plant species in 3D is one possible application. In this paper an approach is presented to model in 3D a number of genotypes of Arabidopsis Thaliana that differ in flower morphology. The method entails the collection of the 3D data, parameterisation of the 3D model and subsequent generation of the 3D image of the plant genotype. The profiling method was used to create 3D images of existing plants by merging 2D digital pictures of the plant silhouette to a 3D object. The data from the digitised plants were used to determine geometrical parameters that are required for the architectural model, based on the L-systems algorithm. The architectural model was able to simulate a number of flower mutants of Arabidopsis. The potentials of the model to simulate simple gene expressions controlled by environmental conditions are discussed, as well as future possibilities to incorporate physiological processes. Some possibilities to use the 3D model to simulate different genotypes of ornamental plant species are put forward. The concept of the virtual plant is acknowledged as a powerful tool to understand and visualise plant growth and appearance.