We developed a software tool enabling user-friendly and standardized pre- and post-processing of images of rooted soil by combining image processing techniques such as image registration, calibration, and segmentation in a graphical user interface. The added benefits of this image processing approach include an improved workflow in soil zymography. For evaluation, we conducted a rhizobox experiment with maize and determined the activity of leucine-aminopeptidase before and after glucose addition based on soil zymography. The temporal and spatial distribution of enzyme activity at the root-soil interface can be visualized by Root-o-Mat which offers 1) standardized image pre-processing, 2) calibration, 3) identification of hotspots of various intensity thresholds, 4) spatial analysis for selected roots, 5) inter-active illustration of enzyme activity profile lines, 6) image viewer, and 7) detection of temporal changes of enzyme activity. Registering images of the same rhizobox taken in successive periods allows further temporal and spatial analysis. We conclude that Root-o-Mat simplifies and firmly anchors image processing and image analyses in soil zymography. The new software can be downloaded for free (www.root-o-mat.de).

我们开发了一种软件工具，通过在图形用户界面中结合图像配准，校准和分段等图像处理技术，可以对生根土壤的图像进行用户友好和标准化的前后处理。这种图像处理方法的额外好处包括改进了土壤酶谱学的工作流程。为了进行评估，我们对玉米进行了根瘤菌试验，并根据土壤酶谱法确定了添加葡萄糖之前和之后的亮氨酸-氨基肽酶活性。Root-o-Mat可以直观显示根-土壤界面上酶活性的时间和空间分布，可提供1）标准化图像预处理，2）校准，3）识别各种强度阈值的热点，4）空间分析选定的根，5）酶活性图谱线的交互图，6）图像查看器，和7）酶活性随时间变化的检测。配准连续周期拍摄的相同根瘤菌的图像，可以进行进一步的时间和空间分析。我们得出的结论是，根-o-Mat简化并牢固地锚定了土壤酶谱学中的图像处理和图像分析。可以免费下载新软件（www.root-o-mat.de）。