Quantitative Iformation on Pants in Variable and Heterogeneous Environment - Integrated Approaches to Mechanistic, High-Throughput and Field Phenotyping

Plant phenotyping develops rapidly into a bottleneck for progress in basic and applied research. Lack of adequate solutions for quantitative analysis of plant architecture and function as well as their interaction with the dynamic and heterogeneous environment hampers progress in basic sciences as well as in breeding-related research.  In recent years significant interdisciplinary approaches have been started to overcome this “phenotyping bottleneck”. Techniques were developed to quantify the dynamics and the heterogeneity of plant structure and function as well as of environmental cues. These mostly non-invasive technologies are developed and implemented into biological concepts that allow novel insights in the dynamic characteristics of plants above- as well as belowground. The technologies include high-resolution analysis for mechanistic understanding (like MRI and PET for structure, growth and activity of roots and shoots), the high-throughput approach for analysis of large numbers of genotypes and environmental conditions as well as field approaches, which are the reference to indicate the relevance. The talk will provide an overview on recent developments in technologies as well as conceptual approaches as the basis for a quantitative understanding of plant-environment-dynamics and its application for plant breeding and plant management. The talk will also present recent developments in infrastructure platforms that have been and will be established in Germany, in Europe and globally.