Advances in root phenotyping: high-throughput imaging, computational tools, and integrative approaches for crop improvement.

Abstract

Abstract Climate change increasingly threatens global agriculture by intensifying abiotic stresses and destabilizing crop productivity, necessitating a deeper understanding of root-mediated traits governing resource acquisition and stress resilience. Here, we synthesize recent advances in root-centred plant phenomics, emphasizing how high-throughput phenotyping enables high-resolution, scalable characterization of complex root traits and robust comparative analysis across diverse genotypes and environments. Innovations in multimodal imaging, notably X-ray computed tomography, MRI, and machine learning-integrated rhizotrons, facilitate detailed reconstruction of root system architecture and its temporal dynamics under both controlled and semi-field conditions. Furthermore, root phenotyping is increasingly interpreted within an integrated whole-plant framework. The integration of organ-specific assessments with physiological phenomics leveraging spectral and thermal data enables the characterization of developmental plasticity and root-mediated processes, including water-use dynamics, nutrient acquisition, and canopy stress responses under heterogeneous field conditions. These approaches link root traits such as rooting depth and spatial distribution to canopy-level physiological responses under stress. Despite these advances, significant bottlenecks persist in data interoperability, analytical scalability, and protocol standardization. Future progress will require integration of root phenomics with genomics, predictive modelling, and digital twin frameworks to improve resource-use efficiency, yield stability, and climate resilience in global cropping systems.

Plant phenotyping relevance

根系フェノタイピングの高スループット画像化、計算ツール、機械学習統合、データ標準化を中心に扱う方法論レビューであり、植物形質の取得・解析手法が主題である。

Code and data availability

This is a review article synthesizing prior root phenotyping literature. The supplied blocks contain no authors' phenotype datasets, imaging inputs, analysis code, or trained models with public availability statements or URLs. The only supplementary material mentioned (Supplementary Table S3) is a list of third-party,

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