HIGH-THROUGHPUT PHENOTYPING – Easing the Genomics-to-Cultivar Bottleneck

Obtaining genetic plant genetic routine: inexpensive, accurate, and highly automated.  Leveraging these data requires corresponding trait information such as morphology, phenology, physiology, stress/disease tolerance, and productivity (biomass and yield).  Until recently, measuring phenotypes has been uncommon: costly, subjective, and strictly manual.  The contributions of physical scientists and engineers with expertise in automation, sensors, photonics, and image analysis has led to rapid advances in high-throughput phenotyping (HTP).
HTP systems integrate reproducible plant management (e.g., randomization and watering) along with comprehensive plant imaging.  In addition to visible light, imaging in the near infrared, infrared, and hyper spectral ranges is informative.  Chlorophyll fluorescence functional imaging is highly sensitive to stress-induced responses from pathogens, chemicals, and salinity.
Real time, automated image analysis and sensor data integration is a further requirement of HTP.  Data transformation and modeling are also needed.  The end product is quantitative plant phenotypes that go far beyond the scoring systems traditionally used in breeding.  Such digital phenotypes contribute decisively to further analysis of gene functions (e.g., GWAS, tilling, QTL, etc.).  Combining genomics and phenomics data will lead to new insights about plant productivity in the face of climate change while also generating stress-tolerant and yield-stable cultivars in fewer cycles and at lower cost.  A feasible goal is to find proxies for yield that do not require maintaining plants through maturity.
The presentation will survey existing and future phenotyping technologies, focusing on opportunities in maize with an emphasis on our field phenotyping system.