Automated phenotyping for early vigour of field pea seedlings in controlled environment by colour imaging technology.

Abstract

Early vigour of seedlings is a beneficial trait of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) that contributes to weed control, water use efficiency and is likely to contribute to yield under certain environments. Although breeding is considered the most effective approach to improve early vigour of field pea, the absence of a robust and high-throughput phenotyping tool to dissect this complex trait is currently a major obstacle of genetic improvement programs to address this issue. To develop this tool, separate trials on 44 genetically diverse field pea genotypes were conducted in the automated plant phenotyping platform of Plant Phenomics Victoria, Horsham and in the field, respectively. High correlation between estimated plant parameters derived from the automated phenotyping platform and important early vigour traits such as shoot biomass, leaf area and plant height indicated that the derived plant parameters can be used to predict vigour traits in field pea seedlings. Plant growth analysis demonstrated that the "broken-stick" model fitted well with the growth pattern of all field pea genotypes and can be used to determine the linear growth phase. Further analysis suggested that the estimated plant parameters collected at the linear growth phase can effectively differentiate early vigour across field pea genotypes. High correlation between normalised difference vegetation indices captured from the field trial and estimated shoot biomass and top-view area confirmed the consistent performance of early vigour field pea genotypes under controlled and field environments. Overall, our results demonstrated that this robust screening tool is highly applicable and will enable breeding programs to rapidly identify early vigour traits and utilise germplasm to contribute to the genetic improvement of field peas.

Plant phenotyping relevance

フィールドエンドウの初期生育形質を推定する自動画像フェノタイピングツールを開発し、圃場測定との相関で性能を検証しているため、方法が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The paper states all relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files; the only supplement (S1 Table) contains genotype origins, not phenotype measurements, images, or analysis code. No public dataset, image collection, or author code repository is described.

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