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High-throughput Phenotyping of Wheat Seminal Root Traits in a Breeding Context
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia Environmental Sciences 29 (2015) 102 – 103
Agriculture and Climate Change - Adapting Crops to Increased Uncertainty (AGRI 2015)
High-throughput phenotyping of wheat seminal root traits in a breeding context Cecile Richard*1, Lee Hickey1, Susan Fletcher2, Karine Chenu3, Andrew Borrell4, Jack Christopher5 1
The2University of Queensland, Queensland Alliance for Agricultural and Food Innovation, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia Department 3 of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Leslie Research Facility, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia 4 The University of Queensland, QAAFI, 203 Tor street, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia 5 Hermitage Research Station, Department of Primary Industries, Warwick, QLD 4370, Australia; The University of Queensland, QAAFI,, Leslie Research Facility, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia * [email protected]
Abstract Water availability is a major limiting factor for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in rain-fed agricultural systems worldwide. Root architecture has important functional implications for the timing and extent of soil water extraction, yet selection for root traits in wheat breeding programs has been largely limited due to the lack of suitable phenotyping methods. The aim of this research was to develop a low-cost high-throughput phenotyping method to facilitate selection for desirable root traits. We developed a method to assess ‘seminal root angle’ and ‘seminal root number’ in seedlings – two proxy traits associated to root architecture of mature wheat plants (1). The method involves measuring the angle between the first pair of seminal roots and the number of roots of wheat seedlings grown in transparent pots (Figure 1). Images captured at 5 to 10 days after sowing are analyzed to calculate seminal root angle and number. Performing this technique under “speed breeding” conditions (plants grown at a density of 600 plants / m2, under controlled temperature and constant light) allows the selection based on the desired root traits of up to 5 consecutive generations within 12 months. Alternatively, when focusing only on germplasm screening, up to 52 successive phenotypic assays can be conducted within 12 months. This approach has been shown to be highly reproducible, it requires little resource (time, space, and labour) and can be used to rapidly enrich breeding populations with desirable alleles for narrow root angle and a high number of seminal roots to indirectly target the selection of deeper root system with higher branching at depth. Such root characteristics are highly desirable in wheat to cope with the climate model projections, especially in summer rainfall dominant regions including some Australian, Indian, South American and African cropping regions, where winter crops mainly rely on deep stored water.
1878-0296 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Agriculture and Climate Change - Adapting Crops to Increased Uncertainty (AGRI 2015) doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2015.07.179
Cecile Richard et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 29 (2015) 102 – 103
103
Figure 1: Illustration of seedlings phenotyped for seminal root traits in a high-throughput phenotypic system using transparent pots (picture taken 5 days after sowing). © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Agriculture and Climate Change - Adapting Crops to Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Agriculture and Climate Change - Adapting Crops to Increased Increased Uncertainty Uncertainty (AGRI 2015)(AGRI 2015). Keywords: Wheat breeding; Root angle; Roor number; Adaptation; Drought
References 1.
Richard C, Hickey L, Fletcher S, Jennings R, Chenu K, Christopher J. High-throughput phenotyping of seminal root traits in wheat. Plant Methods. 2015;11(1):13.
ScienceDirect Procedia Environmental Sciences 29 (2015) 102 – 103
Agriculture and Climate Change - Adapting Crops to Increased Uncertainty (AGRI 2015)
High-throughput phenotyping of wheat seminal root traits in a breeding context Cecile Richard*1, Lee Hickey1, Susan Fletcher2, Karine Chenu3, Andrew Borrell4, Jack Christopher5 1
The2University of Queensland, Queensland Alliance for Agricultural and Food Innovation, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia Department 3 of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Leslie Research Facility, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia 4 The University of Queensland, QAAFI, 203 Tor street, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia 5 Hermitage Research Station, Department of Primary Industries, Warwick, QLD 4370, Australia; The University of Queensland, QAAFI,, Leslie Research Facility, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia * [email protected]
Abstract Water availability is a major limiting factor for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in rain-fed agricultural systems worldwide. Root architecture has important functional implications for the timing and extent of soil water extraction, yet selection for root traits in wheat breeding programs has been largely limited due to the lack of suitable phenotyping methods. The aim of this research was to develop a low-cost high-throughput phenotyping method to facilitate selection for desirable root traits. We developed a method to assess ‘seminal root angle’ and ‘seminal root number’ in seedlings – two proxy traits associated to root architecture of mature wheat plants (1). The method involves measuring the angle between the first pair of seminal roots and the number of roots of wheat seedlings grown in transparent pots (Figure 1). Images captured at 5 to 10 days after sowing are analyzed to calculate seminal root angle and number. Performing this technique under “speed breeding” conditions (plants grown at a density of 600 plants / m2, under controlled temperature and constant light) allows the selection based on the desired root traits of up to 5 consecutive generations within 12 months. Alternatively, when focusing only on germplasm screening, up to 52 successive phenotypic assays can be conducted within 12 months. This approach has been shown to be highly reproducible, it requires little resource (time, space, and labour) and can be used to rapidly enrich breeding populations with desirable alleles for narrow root angle and a high number of seminal roots to indirectly target the selection of deeper root system with higher branching at depth. Such root characteristics are highly desirable in wheat to cope with the climate model projections, especially in summer rainfall dominant regions including some Australian, Indian, South American and African cropping regions, where winter crops mainly rely on deep stored water.
1878-0296 © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Agriculture and Climate Change - Adapting Crops to Increased Uncertainty (AGRI 2015) doi:10.1016/j.proenv.2015.07.179
Cecile Richard et al. / Procedia Environmental Sciences 29 (2015) 102 – 103
103
Figure 1: Illustration of seedlings phenotyped for seminal root traits in a high-throughput phenotypic system using transparent pots (picture taken 5 days after sowing). © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Agriculture and Climate Change - Adapting Crops to Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the Agriculture and Climate Change - Adapting Crops to Increased Increased Uncertainty Uncertainty (AGRI 2015)(AGRI 2015). Keywords: Wheat breeding; Root angle; Roor number; Adaptation; Drought
References 1.
Richard C, Hickey L, Fletcher S, Jennings R, Chenu K, Christopher J. High-throughput phenotyping of seminal root traits in wheat. Plant Methods. 2015;11(1):13.