LI-COR Biosciences announces the release of the LI-6400XTA Whole Plant Arabidopsis Gas Exchange System.

The LI-6400XTA is designed for molecular biologists, plant physiologists, and geneticists who study Arabidopsis thaliana. It provides a platform for physiological assessment of in situ function to validate regulatory or functional genes identified by genomic, molecular, or bioinformatics studies. In addition to the LI-6400XT Portable Photosynthesis System, the LI-6400XTA package includes the Whole Plant Arabidopsis Chamber, the Red/Green/Blue (RGB) Light Source, and an AC power supply.

The Whole Plant Arabidopsis (WPA) Gas Exchange System is a versatile tool, designed to provide scientists with the flexibility to answer a wide variety of research questions. Interchangeable chamber bottom plates permit measurement of plants grown in either pots or Cone-tainers^TM. With the RGB Light Source, which enables light response studies of whole rosettes, researchers can select any combination of red, green, or blue light with continuously variable intensities, or white light by using equal proportions of red, green, and blue light. Low temperature LEDs with an attached Peltier cooler minimize the influence of the light source on the temperature of the sampling volume and plant, while a silicon feedback photodiode ensures accurate lighting intensity for the duration of measurements. The RGB Light Source mounts directly to the WPA Chamber to provide uniform light distribution for every measurement.

"LI-COR brings a lot of expertise into designing chambers for photosynthesis measurements," says Chris Mantzios, LI-COR national sales manager. "Our engineers used computational fluid dynamics software to verify that the mixing is very even and at an adequate level throughout the chamber."