Volatilomics: a non-invasive technique for screening plant phenotypic traits.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Climate change represents a grand challenge for agricultural productivity. Understanding complex plant traits such as stress tolerance, disease resistance or crop yield is thus essential for breeding and the development of sustainable agriculture strategies. When screening for the most robust plant phenotypes, fast, high-throughput phenotyping represents the means of choice. RESULTS: We have developed a plant phenotyping platform to measure the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), photosynthetic gas exchange and transpiration under ambient, or abiotic and biotic stress conditions. These parameters are highly suitable markers to non-invasively and dynamically study plant growth and plant stress status, making them perfect test variables for long-term, online plant monitoring. Here we introduce the new phenotyping platform, termed VOC-SCREEN, and present results of a first case study with three barley cultivars, demonstrating that the plant's volatilome can be successfully applied to discriminate different barley varieties. CONCLUSION: Volatilomics is a promising technique to non-invasively screen for plant phenotypic traits.

Plant phenotyping relevance

VOC放出、光合成ガス交換、蒸散を測定する植物フェノタイピング・プラットフォームを開発し、品種識別への適用も示しており、表現型取得法が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The paper's VOC-SCREEN phenotyping datasets (VOC emissions, gas exchange, transpiration measurements of barley cultivars) are not publicly deposited; the authors state they are available only on request. No public code, models, or data URLs are provided.

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