The new version of the ISA-Tab plant phenotyping configuration reorganises location of particular elements of MIAPPE attributes at Study and Assay level. It is a result of the current policy of the ISA-Tab group, namely, to allow for application-specific Study files. No longer bound by the default shape of the Study file, we decided to split and separate the information about the plant experiments itself from the information about the phenotyping procedures.

All attributes describing plant experiment, i.e. biological objects and its handling, together with growth conditions, are now described in the Study file. Rows of the Study file correspond to experimental units, as planned in the experimental design. There are three versions of the Study file – dedicated to basic, field and greenhouse experiments.

The description of phenotyping procedures, i.e. trait measuring, is placed in the Phenotyping Assay file. The distinctive characteristics of this file is the link to Trait Definition File, where the observed variables (phenotypic traits and environmental variables) are described. Phenotyping Assay can be enriched by e.g. ‘Time’ attribute, or the settings of the phenotyping platform.

The latest version of the plant phenotyping configuration for the ISA-Tab format can be found here.