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The acquisition of quantitative information on plant development across a range of temporal and spatial scales is essential to understand the mechanisms of plant growth. Recent years have shown the emergence of imaging methodologies that enable the capture and analysis of plant growth, from the dynamics of molecules within cells to the measurement of morphometricand physiological traits in field-grown plants. In some instances, these imaging methods can be parallelized across multiple samples to increase throughput. When high throughput is combined with high temporal and spatial resolution, the resulting image-derived data sets could be combined with molecular large-scale data sets to enable unprecedented systems-level computational modeling. Such image-driven functional genomics studies may be expected to appear at an accelerating rate in the near future given the early success of the foundational efforts reviewed here. We present new imaging modalities and review how they have enabled a better understanding of plant growth from the microscopic to the macroscopic scale. 

SUMMARY Resurrection plants can survive prolonged life without water (anhydrobiosis) in regions with seasonal drying. This desiccation tolerance requires the coordination of numerous cellular processes across space and time, and individual plant tissues face unique constraints related to their function. Here, we analyzed the complex, octoploid genome of the model resurrection plantCraterostigma(C. plantagineum), and surveyed spatial and temporal expression dynamics to identify genetic elements underlying desiccation tolerance. Homeologous genes within theCraterostigmagenome have divergent expression profiles, suggesting the subgenomes contribute differently to desiccation tolerance traits. TheCraterostigmagenome contains almost 200 tandemly duplicated early light‐induced proteins, a hallmark trait of desiccation tolerance, with massive upregulation under water deficit. We identified a core network of desiccation‐responsive genes across all tissues, but observed almost entirely unique expression dynamics in each tissue during recovery. Roots and leaves have differential responses related to light and photoprotection, autophagy and nutrient transport, reflecting their divergent functions. Our findings highlight a universal set of likely ancestral desiccation tolerance mechanisms to protect cellular macromolecules under anhydrobiosis, with secondary adaptations related to tissue function.