HADES Exp68 dataset: Arabidopsis auxin-responsive fluorescence and Pseudomonas simiae WCS417 colonisation dynamics across bacterial and sucrose conditions

HADES Exp68 is a longitudinal Arabidopsis thaliana imaging dataset generated using the HADES automated phenotyping platform to examine plant development, auxin-responsive fluorescence, and bacterial-associated fluorescence across plant, bacterial, and media conditions. The experiment comprises wild-type Col-0 and the auxin-responsive DR5v2::mTurquoise2 reporter line, with mock, WCS417-mCherry, and WCS417_pvd-mCherry bacterial conditions and media with or without 5% sucrose. The complete experimental batch is released to preserve the original study design and enable reuse beyond the subset analysed in the companion HADES methods study.

Seedlings were cultivated in vitro and monitored longitudinally using the HADES RootCam system. Repeated transmitted-light imaging provides morphological records of plant and root development, while multi-channel fluorescence acquisitions capture mTurquoise2 reporter fluorescence and mCherry-associated bacterial fluorescence. The experimental design therefore supports comparison of host genotype/reporter status, bacterial condition, sucrose treatment, and their temporal dynamics within the same HADES acquisition framework.

The public dataset preserves the acquisition and vendor-analysis record of the experiment. It contains RootCam transmitted-light and fluorescence acquisition records together with corresponding PlantScreen Data Analyzer outputs where generated. The release additionally provides reviewed experimental metadata, package-scoped variable definitions, manifests, checksums, provenance, and validation information. PlantScreen analysis products are retained as vendor-generated components of the exported experiment and should not be confused with the custom HADES ROOT and fluorescence-analysis pipelines used for the biological analyses in the companion methods study. The Data Descriptor release excludes the large downstream segmentation, fluorescence-alignment, and figure-generation result trees, which can be regenerated from the released acquisition data using separately archived analysis code.

The dataset can be reused for development and benchmarking of longitudinal plant- and root-image analysis methods, fluorescence-image analysis, multimodal data integration, and independent investigation of plant and bacterial fluorescence dynamics across the deposited genotype, bacterial, and sucrose conditions. 

This dataset is one of the experiment-level records in the HADES reference data release being prepared for the Data Descriptor A HADES reference release for longitudinal multimodal root phenotyping. A defined subset of Exp68 also provides the acquisition data underlying the dual-channel fluorescence demonstration in the companion methods study, HADES: high-throughput end-to-end automation of multimodal phenotyping for root-microbe interactions. That study uses the non-pvd WCS417-mCherry, no-added-sucrose conditions together with the corresponding controls to demonstrate simultaneous imaging of auxin-responsive DR5v2::mTurquoise2 fluorescence and bacterial colonisation. The public Exp68 release is broader and contains the complete experimental batch, including WCS417_pvd-mCherry and 5% sucrose conditions that were not analysed for that demonstration.