What is archiDART?
archiDART is an R package developed for the automated analysis of plant root system architectures using Data Analysis of Root Tracings (DART) and Root System Markup Language (RSML) files. I started to develop archiDART when I was working on my PhD in Belgium, and I am still actively maintaining it.
Check out the paper presenting archiDART! The functions of archiDART were developed to extract morphological and architectural descriptors at the root system and single root levels from DART and RSML files obtained after image analysis of washed root systems or rhizotron images. During my postdoc, I updated archiDART to allow the analysis of 3D root systems simulated with RSML-compatible structural plant models such as CRootBox or archisimple. With Guillaume Lobet, Mao Li, and Christopher Topp, we also developed new functionalities allowing the topological analysis of plant root systems using Fitter indices or persistent homology. This analysis pipeline is described here. This R package is the result of a collaboration between researchers from all over the globe: Leuphana University Lüneburg (Germany), Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH (IBG-3, Germany), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (University of Liège, Belgium), French National Institute for Agricultural Research (Centre PACA UR 1115 PSH, France), and Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (USA). |
Want to know more about the story behind archiDART?
Have a look at this blog post!