Plant Tracer is a tool that helps us study how plants move by letting us watch and measure their motion in time-lapse videos.
Plant Tracer gives many people around the world a chance to work together to spot plants that move in unexpected ways. These unusual movements might be linked to genetic differences that can be explored with Plant Tracer. Finding them can help scientists better understand how plants grow and respond to their environment.
Plants may not seem mobile, but they do move. For example, some movements are caused by gravitropism. Gravitropism is how plants sense and respond to gravity so they can grow in the right direction. Another type of movement is called circumnutation—the slow, methodical, circular or swaying motion that plants often make as they grow.
Scientists have known about circumnutation for a long time. In fact, Charles Darwin wrote about these plant movements in the late 1800s. But even today, there is still a lot we don’t fully understand about the patterns and purpose of various types of plant movement.
With Plant Tracer, students and scientists can watch these movements closely and measure things like how far a stem bends, how fast it moves, or how much it sways. Plant Tracer turns time-lapse videos into values and charts that can be compared and studied to better understand the purpose of these movements.
By comparing data from many different plants, users can help identify which plants move in typical ways and which show unusual patterns. Over time, this helps scientists discover how plant movement works and what genes or conditions in the environment might be involved.
Eric Brenner - PI and Plant Tracer project head
Simson Garfinkel - Co-PI, Webapp Architect, and Lead Developer
Steve Barber - Webapp Project Manager and Developer
JoAnn Juzefyk - Webapp Developer
Joe Dinsmoor - Webapp Test Engineer
Al Olsen - iOS App Lead Developer