Given the rapid development of plant genomic technologies, a lack of access to plant phenotyping capabilities limits our ability to dissect the genetics of quantitative traits. Effective, high-throughput phenotyping platforms have recently been developed to solve this problem. In high-throughput phenotyping platforms, a variety of imaging methodologies are being used to collect data for quantitative studies of complex traits related to the growth, yield and adaptation to biotic or abiotic stress (disease, insects, drought and salinity). These imaging techniques include visible imaging (machine vision), imaging spectroscopy (multispectral and hyperspectral remote sensing), thermal infrared imaging, fluorescence imaging, 3D imaging and tomographic imaging (MRT, PET and CT). This paper presents a brief review on these imaging techniques and their applications in plant phenotyping. The features used to apply these imaging techniques to plant phenotyping are described and discussed in this review.

The p53 tumor suppressor protein, which is commonly mutated in human cancers, has been shown to interact directly with virally encoded proteins from papillomavirus, adenovirus, and simian virus 40. The disruption of p53 function may be required for efficient replication of certain viruses and may also play a role in the development of virally induced malignancies. Infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been associated with the development of B-cell lymphomas and nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Here we show that the EBV immediate-early protein, BZLF1 (Z), which is responsible for initiating the switch from latent to lytic infection, can interact directly in vitro and in vivo with the tumor suppressor protein, p53. This interaction requires the coiled-coil dimerization domain of the Z protein and the carboxy-terminal portion of p53.Overexpression of wild-type p53 inhibits the ability of Z to disrupt viral latency. Likewise, Z inhibits p53-dependent transactivation in lymphoid cells. The direct interaction between Z and p53 may play a role in regulating the switch from latent to lytic viral infection.The p53 tumor suppressor protein is an important negative regulator of cell proliferation (38,48,63,65) and is often mutated in human cancers (26). The p53 protein interacts with the viral E6 protein from certain cancer-associated strains of human papillomavirus (36,54,68), the Elb protein of adenovirus (53, 72), and the large T antigen of papovaviruses (35,53). The dysregulation of wild-type p53 function by viral proteins is thought to play an important role in virus-induced malignancy (37).The interaction between viral proteins and p53 may also play a role in the replication of certain viruses. The p53 protein binds to the simian virus 40 origin of replication (3) and inhibits the ability of large T antigen to mediate simian virus 40 replication in vitro (19,67). In addition, p53 colocalizes with the viral replication proteins in cells infected with herpes simplex virus (70). These data suggest that p53 could potentially regulate the replication of herpesviruses through direct interaction with viral replicative proteins.In this study, we have examined the ability of p53 to interact with the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) protein BZLF1 (Z), which mediates lytic replication. EBV is a transforming virus in vitro, and infection with EBV has been associated with the development of both B-cell and epithelial cell malignancies in vivo (reviewed in reference 44). EBV infection of B cells in vivo is primarily latent, although productive infection can occur in immunocompromised patients. The switch from latent to productive infection is mediated by transcriptional activation of the immediate-early Z gene (6,52,62). The Z gene product (a member of the basic leucine zipper family) binds directly to APl-like motifs as a homodimer and functions as a transcriptional transactivator (5,12,14,30,34,39,49,64). A number of viral early promoters contain upstream Z-binding sites and are activated upon expression of the Z gene product (6,8,12,14...

Every apple destined for the fresh market is picked by the human hand. Despite extensive research over the past four decades, there are no mechanical apple harvesters for the fresh market commercially available, which is a significant concern because of increasing uncertainty about the availability of manual labor and rising production costs. The highly unstructured orchard environment has been a major challenge to the development of commercially viable robotic harvesting systems. This paper reports the design and field evaluation of a robotic apple harvester. The approach adopted was to use a low-cost system to assess required sensing, planning, and manipulation functionality in a modern orchard system with a planar canopy. The system was tested in a commercial apple orchard in Washington State. Workspace modifications and performance criteria are thoroughly defined and reported to help evaluate the approach and guide future enhancements. The machine vision system was accurate and had an average localization time of 1.5 s per fruit. The seven degree of freedom harvesting system successfully picked 127 of the 150 fruit attempted for an overall success rate of 84% with an average picking time of 6.0 s per fruit. Future work will include integration of additional sensing and obstacle detection for improved system robustness.

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