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Abstract
Given the rapid development of plant genomic technologies, a lack of access to plant phenotyping capabilities limits our ability to dissect the genetics of quantitative traits. Effective, high-throughput phenotyping platforms have recently been developed to solve this problem. In high-throughput phenotyping platforms, a variety of imaging methodologies are being used to collect data for quantitative studies of complex traits related to the growth, yield and adaptation to biotic or abiotic stress (disease, insects, drought and salinity). These imaging techniques include visible imaging (machine vision), imaging spectroscopy (multispectral and hyperspectral remote sensing), thermal infrared imaging, fluorescence imaging, 3D imaging and tomographic imaging (MRT, PET and CT). This paper presents a brief review on these imaging techniques and their applications in plant phenotyping. The features used to apply these imaging techniques to plant phenotyping are described and discussed in this review.
Keywords: phenotyping phenotype, fluorescence imaging, thermal infrared imaging, visible light imaging, imaging spectroscopy, three dimensional imaging
1. Introduction
To ensure that crop production is sufficient to satisfy the needs of a human population that is expected to grow to more than 9 billion by 2050 is a tremendous challenge for plant science and crop improvement [1]. This goal is challenging primarily because the average rate of crop production increase is only 1.3% per year, and it cannot keep pace with population growth. By connecting the genotype to the phenotype, high yielding, stress-tolerant plants can be selected far more rapidly and efficiently than is currently possible. Advances in techniques such as next generation DNA sequencing can be made available to breeders to provide potential increases in the rate of genetic improvement by molecular breeding [2]. However, the lack of access to phenotyping capabilities limits our ability to dissect the genetics of quantitative traits related to growth, yield and adaptation to stress. Plant breeders and farmers were making selections based on phenotypes long before the discovery of DNA and molecular markers. To identify the best genetic variation, the more crosses and environments that are used for selection, the greater the probability of identifying a superior variation. To meet future requirements, there is a need to increase breeding efficiency. Advances in high throughput genotyping have offered fast and inexpensive genomic information and paved the way for the development of large mapping populations and diversity panels of thousands of recombinant inbred lines for phenotyping [3]. Although molecular breeding strategies have placed greater focus on selections based on genotypic information, they still require the following phenotypic data [4]: (1) phenotypes are used for selection and to train a prediction model in genomic selection; (2) a single phenotyping cycle is used to identify markers for subsequent selection through generations within the maker-assisted recurrent selection [5]; and (3) phenotyping is necessary to identify promising events in transgenic studies [6]. Phenotyping advances are essential for capitalizing on developments in conventional, molecular, and transgenic breeding.
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