Introducing Plant Tracer: A project led by Eric Brenner at Pace University

Looking at a typical plant, you may not notice that it is moving. Although generally perceived as static, all plants are dynamic, as shown by time-lapse photography. Plant Tracer is the first App-based tool that enables students and scientists to quantify plant movement (circumnutation and gravitropism) from time-lapse movies using their hand-held devices (iPhones).

Plant Tracer is being used in teaching laboratories to study the genetics of plant movement in the genetic model plant, Arabidopsis, as part of a crowd-sourced method to identify novel mutants to better understand the signals regulating plant movement. Results from Plant Tracer genetics screens are uploaded to a shared database for use among the general plant community. Plant Tracer will also work on a variety of other plant species and is being adapted for use to study a variety of plant movements.