High-throughput imaging for elucidating rice salinity stress responses

Salinity is one of the major environmental limitations for irrigated agriculture with yield losses estimated to exceed $12 billion dollars annually. Only 17% of agriculture is under irrigation, yet it provides a third of the global food supply. Rice is arguably the most important crop for global food security, but is also the most salt-sensitive among staple cereals. We are combining the genotypic resources for the rice diversity panel with high throughput image-based phenotyping for elucidating the physiological and genetic basis of salinity tolerance in rice. Focus for this work is on early tillering stage stress. Recent results from our imaging and genetic analysis will be presented.