Phenomics evaluation of agronomic traits in winter wheat

Citation

Humphreys G., M. Morrison, C.Gahagan , T. Hotte, C. Thomsen, J. Nicoll, M. Hawkesford, A. Riche, R. Graf, E. Brauer, and A. Burt (2022) Phenomics evaluation of agronomic traits in winter wheat. Oral presentation and Abstract presented at 2022 Joint CWSS-CSA Meeting, Nov. 12-17, 2022 in Halifax, NS, Canada.

Résumé en langage clair

This research indicates the value of using phenomics into wheat breeding to more usefully describe and investigate winter hardiness, which is a critical attribute in winter wheat improvement and breeding.

Résumé

Winter survival is the most critical attribute of a successful winter wheat cultivar. There are many pieces to the winter survival puzzle that need to be evaluated such as fall stand establishment and vegetative growth rate, seedling diseases, spring recovery and spring growth rate. Phenomics is the use of cameras and sensors to physically describe a plant’s architecture and physiology. We used the PlotCam, a cost effective, highly portable, proximal phenomics platform to capture RGB images and height data from 44 Canadian and 44 UK winter wheat varieties. Strategically planned measurements resulted in data collected on fall biomass production and growth rates prior to snow cover. Imaging continued in early spring, shortly after snow cover was gone. Differences in fall and spring biomass provided a precise, qualitative measure of winter survival as opposed to a field estimated percent survival. Preliminary analysis indicated that UK varieties had higher fall growth rates than Canadian lines, but lower winter survival and spring growth recovery rates. Phenomics was a useful tool to describe the effects of seedling fungal diseases on stand establishment and winter hardiness. Generally, higher biomass was associated with greater winter survival. Our experiments proves the usefulness of incorporating phenomics into wheat breeding to tactically describe winter hardiness.