Abstract Modern agriculture faces the dual challenge of sustainably increasing food production while mitigating the environmental impact of intensive monocultures. Mixed cropping, which is the cultivation of multiple species or varieties, may provide ecological benefits that address productivity and environmental sustainability challenges. However, evaluating its multifunctionality in conventional agricultural field experiments is costly and labour-intensive, and small sample sizes and high spatial variability often make it difficult to detect the statistical significance of mixed cropping effects. This study aims to introduce and validate a high-throughput field phenotyping (HTP) framework that integrates aerial imagery obtained from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to efficiently assess the multifunctionality of mixed cropping systems. We conducted a field experiment comparing monocultures of oat, rye, and barley; intraspecific mixed cropping combining three oat varieties; and interspecific mixed cropping combining oat, rye, and barley. Using UAV-derived data across the entire field, including vegetation cover, plant height, and the normalised difference vegetation index, we evaluated five multifunctionalities (biomass production, spatial variability in biomass production, early canopy closure, lodging resistance, and lodging resilience). This framework reveals that mixed cropping outperforms monocropping in several key ecological functions. The proposed UAV-based HTP approach enables cost-effective, robust, and scalable evaluation of mixed cropping systems, facilitating their optimisation for multifunctionality and contributing to the advancement of sustainable agriculture.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methodsUAV画像を用いた高スループット圃場フェノタイピング枠組みを導入・検証し、植生被覆、草丈、NDVIから複数の植物形質・状態を抽出しており、フェノタイピング手法が中心的です。
abstractThis study aims to introduce and validate a high-throughput field phenotyping (HTP) framework that integrates aerial imagery obtained from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
Reproduction assets foundThe paper's Data availability statement explicitly deposits the datasets generated and analysed (UAV-derived phenotyping measurements) in a public Zenodo repository with a DOI matching an allowed URL.Dataset · publicThe datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available in the Zenodo repository, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17042273.Open asset ↗Zenodo · 10.5281/zenodo.17042273lines:197-235Code / dataset availability confirmedEurope PMC · OpenAlex · Crossref · checked 15 Sept 2026
Background Root hairs play a key role in plant nutrient and water uptake. Historically, root hair traits have largely been quantified manually. As such, this process has been laborious and low-throughput. However, given their importance for plant health and development, high-throughput quantification of root hair morphology could help underpin rapid advances in the genetic understanding of these traits. With recent increases in the accessibility and availability of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques, the development of tools to automate plant phenotyping processes has been greatly accelerated. Results We present pyRootHair, a high-throughput, AI-powered software application to automate root hair trait extraction from microscope images of plant roots grown on agar plates. pyRootHair is capable of batch processing over 600 images per hour without manual input from the end user. In this study, we deploy pyRootHair on a panel of 24 diverse wheat (Triticum aestivum and Triticum turgidum ssp. durum) cultivars and uncover a large, previously unresolved amount of variation in many root hair traits. We show that the overall root hair profile falls under 2 distinct shape categories and that different root hair traits often correlate with each other. We also demonstrate that pyRootHair can be deployed on a range of plant species, including oat (Avena sativa), rice (Oryza sativa), teff (Eragrostis tef), and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). Conclusions The application of pyRootHair enables users to rapidly screen a large number of plant germplasm resources for variation in root hair morphology, supporting high-resolution measurements and high-throughput data analysis. This facilitates downstream investigation of the impacts of root hair genetic control and morphological variation on plant performance. pyRootHair is installable via PyPI (https://pypi.org/project/pyRootHair/) and can be accessed on GitHub at https://github.com/iantsang779/pyRootHair.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methods植物根毛形態を顕微鏡画像から自動抽出するAIソフトウェアを開発し、複数作物で適用・実証しており、表現型取得手法が研究の中心である。
abstractWe present pyRootHair, a high-throughput, AI-powered software application to automate root hair trait extraction from microscope images of plant roots grown on agar plates.
Reproduction assets foundThe paper's root hair phenotyping software (pyRootHair) is publicly available on GitHub and PyPI, the data and notebooks used to generate the manuscript figures are deposited in the repository's paper_data folder, and the software is annotated in the DOME-ML registry. The GigaDB deposit (10.5524/102771) is referenced,但Code · publicregression lines were computed using statsmodels (v0.14.4). Scikit-learn (v.1.5.2) was used for quality control of segmented images. nnU-Netv2 (v2.5.1) was used to create the image segmentation model with PyTorch (v.2.5.1) and CUDA (v.12.6).
Availability of Source Code and Requirements
Project name: pyRootHair
Project homepage: https://github.com/iantsang779/pyRootHair
Operating system(s): Linux, MacOS, Windows
Programming language: Python
License: MIT License
Supplementary Material
giaf141_Supplemental_File giaf141_Authors_Response_To_Reviewer_Comments_Original_Submission giaf141_GIGA-D-25-00279_Original_Submission giaf141_GIGA-D-25-00279_Revision_1 giaf141_Reviewer_1_Report_Original_SubmisOpen asset ↗github.com/iantsang779/pyRootHairlines:250-287Dataset · publicThe source jupyter notebook and data used to generate all figures in the manuscript have been deposited on GitHub [ 39 ].Open asset ↗lines:400-405Code · publiclarge number of plant germplasm resources for variation in root hair morphology, supporting high-resolution measurements and high-throughput data analysis. This facilitates downstream investigation of the impacts of root hair genetic control and morphological variation on plant performance. pyRootHair is installable via PyPI ( https://pypi.org/project/pyRootHair/ ) and can be accessed on GitHub at https://github.com/iantsang779/pyRootHair .
Keywords: root hairs, plant phenotyping, machine learning, computer vision, AI, U-Net, wheat, roots, software
status released display-pdf yes is-olf no is-manuscript no is-preprint no is-journal-matter no is-scanned no is-retracted no
Received 2025 JOpen asset ↗lines:1-34Code / dataset availability confirmedEurope PMC · checked 6 Sept 2026
Abstract Modern agriculture faces the dual challenge of sustainably increasing food production while mitigating the environmental impact of intensive monocultures. Mixed cropping, which is the cultivation of multiple species or varieties, may provide ecological benefits that address productivity and environmental sustainability challenges. However, evaluating its multifunctionality in conventional agricultural field experiments is costly and labour-intensive, and small sample sizes and high spatial variability often make it difficult to detect the statistical significance of mixed cropping effects. This study aims to introduce and validate a high-throughput field phenotyping (HTP) framework that integrates aerial imagery obtained from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to efficiently assess the multifunctionality of mixed cropping systems. We conducted a field experiment comparing monocultures of oat, rye, and barley; intraspecific mixed cropping combining three oat varieties; and interspecific mixed cropping combining oat, rye, and barley. Using UAV-derived data across the entire field, including vegetation cover, plant height, and the normalised difference vegetation index, we evaluated five multifunctionalities (biomass production, spatial variability in biomass production, early canopy closure, lodging resistance, and lodging resilience). This framework reveals that mixed cropping outperforms monocropping in several key ecological functions. The proposed UAV-based HTP approach enables cost-effective, robust, and scalable evaluation of mixed cropping systems, facilitating their optimisation for multifunctionality and contributing to the advancement of sustainable agriculture.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methodsUAV画像から植被率・草高・NDVIなどの植物形質を取得する高スループット表現型解析フレームワークを導入・検証しており、フェノタイピング手法が研究の中心です。
abstractThis study aims to introduce and validate a high-throughput field phenotyping (HTP) framework that integrates aerial imagery obtained from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
Reproduction assets foundThe preprint's data availability statement deposits the datasets generated and analysed in the study (UAV-derived phenotypic measurements and field data) on Zenodo with a DOI that appears verbatim in the allowed URL list. No author analysis code or trained models are explicitly deposited.Dataset · publicThe datasets generated and analysed during the current study are available in the Zenodo repository, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17042273.Open asset ↗Zenodo · 10.5281/zenodo.17042273lines:135-161Code / dataset availability confirmedOpenAlex · checked 6 Sept 2026
The modelling and prediction of important agronomic traits using remotely sensed data is an evolving science and an attractive concept for plant breeders, as manual crop phenotyping is both expensive and time consuming. Major limiting factors in creating robust prediction models include the appropriate integration of data across different years and sites, and the availability of sufficient genetic and phenotypic diversity. Variable weather patterns, especially at higher latitudes, add to the complexity of this integration. This study introduces a novel approach by using photothermal time units to align spectral data from unmanned aerial system images of spring, winter, and facultative oat (Avena sativa) trials conducted over different years at a trial site at Aberystwyth, on the western Atlantic seaboard of the UK. The resulting regression and classification models for various agronomic traits are of significant interest to oat breeding programmes. The potential applications of these findings include optimising breeding strategies, improving crop yield predictions, and enhancing the efficiency of resource allocation in breeding programmes.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methodsUASマルチスペクトル画像とフォトサーマル時間単位を統合し、オート育種試験の農業形質を予測する手法が研究の中心である。
abstractThis study introduces a novel approach by using photothermal time units to align spectral data from unmanned aerial system images
Reproduction assets foundThe paper's Data Availability Statement points to a public deposit of the study's UAS spectral and ground-truth oat trial data at the Aberystwyth Data Repository (DOI 10.20391/ec0863ab-3b5c-434b-837e-74bae4400387). No author analysis code or trained models are explicitly deposited; the supplementary materials contain只有Dataset · publicData Availability Statement: Data are available from the Aberystwyth Data Repository:
https://doi.org/10.20391/ec0863ab-3b5c-434b-837e-74bae4400387.Open asset ↗Aberystwyth Data Repository · 10.20391/ec0863ab-3b5c-434b-837e-74bae4400387pdf-page:19 lines:1-56Code / dataset availability confirmedOpenAlex · checked 14 Sept 2026
Natural biocomposites such as wood and plant cell walls exhibit remarkable mechanical properties largely attributed to their nanoscale chiral organization of fibrous components, such as cellulose. However, resolving the three-dimensional (3D) arrangement of these structures at the nanoscale remains a significant challenge, particularly in beam-sensitive materials. This study introduces a method for 3D reconstruction of orientation based on scanning electron diffraction (SED), enabling the quantitative mapping of chiral supramolecular organization with sub-100 nm spatial resolution. By acquiring low-dose SED data at multiple tilt angles and applying a symmetry-based reconstruction algorithm, we resolved the 3D orientation of cellulose fibrils in native oat husk and birch wood. Our results reveal a multilayered cell wall architecture with alternating helical handedness, providing precise measurements of 3D fibril orientation. This method reveals complex hierarchical structures at the nanoscale, enabling rapid data acquisition and analysis using widely available instrumentation. The ability to resolve such chiral organization opens new understanding of materials properties as well as opportunities for the design of bio-inspired materials with tunable mechanical and functional properties.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methods植物細胞壁中のセルロース fibril の3D配向を定量マッピングする画像計測・再構成法が研究の中心であり、植物構造形質の取得手法を開発している。
abstractThis study introduces a method for 3D reconstruction of orientation based on scanning electron diffraction (SED), enabling the quantitative mapping of chiral supramolecular organization with sub-100 nm spatial resolution.
Reproduction assets foundThe article's Data and Code Availability statement declares that the SED datasets (diffraction data from oat husk and birch wood) and the authors' custom Python analysis script are publicly available on Zenodo (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15647651). This is a paper-specific, public, actionable asset directly reproducing the 3DDataset · publicData and Code Availability
SED data and Python script for SED data analysis used in this study are available from Zenodo
(DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15647651).Open asset ↗Zenodo · 10.5281/zenodo.15647651pdf-page:19 lines:1-36Code · publicSED data and Python script for SED data analysis used in this study are available from Zenodo
(DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15647651).Open asset ↗Zenodo · 10.5281/zenodo.15647651pdf-page:19 lines:1-36Code / dataset availability confirmedCrossref · OpenAlex · checked 15 Sept 2026
Cover crops (CC) immobilize mineral soil N in their biomass, preventing N losses during crop rotation intervals. As the CC biomass is incorporated into the soil and decomposes, N is released for the following main crop. The efficiency of CC N uptake and release depends on CC quantity and quality, which can be enhanced in mixtures. Traditional N uptake measurements are labour-intensive and limited in capturing spatial variability. We calibrated relationships between traditional measurements and multispectral data from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to quantify CC traits with minimal disturbance and high spatial resolution in both monocultures and mixtures. This innovative approach combined vegetation indices, textural features, and a photogrammetry-derived canopy surface model to predict CC traits. Linear models were trained for biomass, N uptake, and C:N predictions, while a K-Nearest-Neighbour model was trained for N concentration. When evaluated on the test set, the calibrated remote sensing models accurately predicted CC aboveground biomass (R 2 : 0.71, RMSE: 287.1 kg/ha, NRMSE: 11.74 %), N concentration (R 2 : 0.80, RMSE: 1.77 gN /kg, NRMSE: 6.96 %), N uptake (R 2 : 0.56, RMSE: 9.38 kgN /ha, NRMSE: 15.08 %), and C:N ratio (R 2 : 0.62, RMSE: 1.86, NRMSE: 10.98 %). The field experiment included monocultures, bi-, and tri-species mixtures of common vetch ( Vicia sativa ), black oat ( Avena strigosa ), and fodder radish ( Raphanus sativus ). N uptake was similar between treatments, yet the CC species differed in strategies, producing high biomass with low N concentration or vice versa. This study provides a basis for spatially predicting key CC traits using UAV optical data.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methodsUAVマルチスペクトル画像、テクスチャ特徴、フォトグラメトリ由来モデルを用いて、植物のバイオマス、窒素濃度、窒素吸収量、C:N比を推定する手法を開発・検証しており、表現型取得が研究の中心である。
abstractWe calibrated relationships between traditional measurements and multispectral data from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to quantify CC traits with minimal disturbance and high spatial resolution in both monocultures and mixtures.
Reproduction assets foundThe paper's Data availability statement explicitly states the authors' R code for image processing, model training, and figure production is publicly available on the authors' WUR GitLab repository (uav4covercroptraits). No phenotype dataset or image deposit is stated separately.Code · publictal for the
UAV data acquisition.
Supplementary materials
Supplementary material associated with this article can be found, in
the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.atech.2024.100608.
Data availability
The R code generated during this study to process the images, train
the models and produce the figures, is publicly available at https://git.wur.nl/dall002/uav4covercroptraits.References
[1] C. Aita, S.J. Giacomini, Crop residue decomposition and nitrogen release in singleOpen asset ↗git.wur.nl/dall002/uav4covercroptraitspdf-raw-page:10 lines:1-89Code / dataset availability confirmedEurope PMC · checked 7 Sept 2026
Diets consisting of greater quantity/diversity of phytochemicals are correlated with reduced risk of disease. This understanding guides policy development increasing awareness of the importance of consuming fruits, grains, and vegetables. Enacted policies presume uniform concentrations of phytochemicals across crop varieties regardless of production/harvesting methods. A growing body of research suggests that concentrations of phytochemicals can fluctuate within crop varieties. Improved awareness of how cropping practices influence phytochemical concentrations are required, guiding policy development improving human health. Reliable, inexpensive laboratory equipment represents one of several barriers limiting further study of the complex interactions influencing crop phytochemical accumulation. Addressing this limitation our study validated the capacity of a low-cost Reflectometer ($500) to measure phytochemical content in selected crops, against a commercial grade laboratory spectrophotometer. Our correlation results ranged from r 2 = 0.81 for protein in wheat and oats to r 2 = 0.99 for polyphenol content in lettuce in both the Reflectometer and laboratory spectrophotometer assessment, suggesting the Reflectometer provides an accurate accounting of phytochemical content within evaluated crops. Repeatability evaluation demonstrated good reproducibility of the Reflectometer to assess crop phytochemical content. Additionally, we confirmed large variation in phytochemical content within specific crop varieties, suggesting that cultivar is but one of multiple drivers of phytochemical accumulation. Our findings indicate dramatic nutrient variations could exist across the food supply, a point whose implications are not well understood. Future studies should investigate the interactions between crop phytochemical accumulation and farm management practices that influence specific soil characteristics.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methods作物の植物化学成分量を測定する低コスト反射計を、実験室用分光光度計と比較して精度・再現性検証しており、植物形質の取得手法の技術的検証が中心である。
abstractour study validated the capacity of a low-cost Reflectometer ($500) to measure phytochemical content in selected crops, against a commercial grade laboratory spectrophotometer.
Reproduction assets foundThe paper explicitly states that all Bionutrient Institute data (reflectometer/spectrometer phytochemical measurements used in this study) are publicly available in the authors' GitLab repository, and the authors' data-processing pipeline code is also publicly hosted on GitLab.Dataset · publicAll data derived from the Bionutrient Institute methods are available publicly from our repository: https://gitlab.com/our-sci/bionutrient-institute/dataset . The data used in this manuscript covers samples submitted up to 7/31/2022.Open asset ↗our-sci/bionutrient-institute/datasetlines:156-212Code · publicAn automated data pipeline was built using SurveyStacks API’s to merge data from each completed survey and mongoDB scripts ( https://gitlab.com/our-sci/real-food-campaign/lab-data-review-dashboard/-/tree/main ) calculated measurement outcomes.Open asset ↗our-sci/real-food-campaign/lab-data-review-dashboardlines:132-143Code / dataset availability confirmedEurope PMC · checked 7 Sept 2026
There is limited information regarding the morphometric relationships of panicle traits in oat (Avena sativa) and their contribution to phenology and growth, physiology, and pathology traits important for yield. To model panicle growth and development and identify genomic regions associated with corresponding traits, 10 diverse spring oat mapping populations (n = 2,993) were evaluated in the field and 9 genotyped via genotyping-by-sequencing. Representative panicles from all progeny individuals, parents, and check lines were scanned, and images were analyzed using manual and automated techniques, resulting in over 60 unique panicle, rachis, and spikelet variables. Spatial modeling and days to heading were used to account for environmental and phenological variances, respectively. Panicle variables were intercorrelated, providing reproducible archetypal and growth models. Notably, adult plant resistance for oat crown rust was most prominent for taller, stiff stalked plants having a more open panicle structure. Within and among family variance for panicle traits reflected the moderate-to-high heritability and mutual genome-wide associations (hotspots) with numerous high-effect loci. Candidate genes and potential breeding applications are discussed. This work adds to the growing genetic resources for oat and provides a unique perspective on the genetic basis of panicle architecture in cereal crops.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methodsオート麦の穂をスキャンし、手動・自動画像解析で60以上の形態形質を抽出して、再現可能な成長・形態モデルを構築している。遺伝解析を含むが、画像ベースの穂形態計測と解析ワークフローが主要な貢献である。
abstractRepresentative panicles from all progeny individuals, parents, and check lines were scanned, and images were analyzed using manual and automated techniques, resulting in over 60 unique panicle, rachis, and spikelet variables.
Reproduction assets foundThe paper's Data Availability statement deposits the paper-specific phenotype dataset (Supplementary Dataset 1), panicle image dataset (Supplementary Dataset 2), and R analysis code on Zenodo under DOI 10.5281/zenodo.7011302, which is an allowed URL. This directly reproduces the paper's panicle phenotyping measurementsCode · publicSupplementary Dataset 1 (phenotypes), Supplementary Dataset 2 (panicle images), R code, and corresponding metadata are available online at https://zenodo.org/ , registered under: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7011302 .Open asset ↗zenodo.org · 10.5281/zenodo.7011302lines:747-785Code / dataset availability confirmedEurope PMC · checked 14 Sept 2026
Lodging impedes the successful cultivation of cereal crops. Complex anatomy, morphology and environmental interactions make identifying reliable and measurable traits for breeding challenging. Therefore, we present a unique collaboration among disciplines for plant science, modelling and simulations, and experimental fluid dynamics in a broader context of breeding lodging resilient wheat and oat. We ran comprehensive wind tunnel experiments to quantify the stem bending behaviour of both cereals under controlled aerodynamic conditions. Measured phenotypes from experiments concluded that the wheat stems response is stiffer than the oat. However, these observations did not in themselves establish causal relationships of this observed behaviour with the physical traits of the plants. To further investigate we created an independent finite-element simulation framework integrating our recently developed multi-scale material modelling approach to predict the mechanical response of wheat and oat stems. All the input parameters including chemical composition, tissue characteristics and plant morphology have a strong physiological meaning in the hierarchical organization of plants, and the framework is free from empirical parameter tuning. This feature of our simulation framework reveals the multi-scale origin of the observed wide differences in the stem strength of both cereals that would not have been possible with purely experimental approach.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methods風洞実験と有限要素シミュレーションを統合し、植物茎の曲げ挙動・強度という表現型を予測・説明する手法が研究の中心である。
abstractWe ran comprehensive wind tunnel experiments to quantify the stem bending behaviour of both cereals under controlled aerodynamic conditions.
Reproduction assets foundThe paper's wind tunnel plant phenotyping assets are publicly available: raw wind tunnel videos of the cereal plants (DRUM repository), the authors' video-analysis scripts (GitHub), and the multi-scale finite-element model code (Dryad). Supplementary material with sample video and analysis details is on Figshare.Code · publiche scripts used and location of the data analysed from the wind tunnel experiment. Multi-scale material model codes in Python, Abaqus model file and python script for automatized simulations at different wind speed levels pertaining to multi-scale finite-element model simulations are available from the Dryad Digital Repository: https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.612jm644j [ 53 ].
Supplementary material is available online [ 54 ].
Authors' contributionsOpen asset ↗Dryad Digital Repository · 10.5061/dryad.612jm644jlines:229-239Code / dataset availability confirmedOpenAlex · Europe PMC · checked 14 Sept 2026
OatRootSeed / grainMorphology / geometry measurementGrowth / development / phenologyRoot system architecture
Abstract Seed vigor is crucial for crop early establishment in the field and is particularly important for forage crop production. Oat (Avena sativa L.) is a nutritious food crop and also a valuable forage crop. However, little is known about the genetics of seed vigor in oats. To investigate seed vigor-related traits and their genetic architecture in oats, we developed an easy-to-implement image-based phenotyping pipeline and applied it to 650 elite oat lines from the Collaborative Oat Research Enterprise (CORE). Root number, root surface area, and shoot length were measured in two replicates. Variables such as growth rate were derived. Using a genome-wide association (GWA) approach, we identified 34 and 16 unique loci associated with root traits and shoot traits, respectively, which corresponded to 41 and 16 unique SNPs at a false discovery rate < 0.1. Nine root-associated loci were organized into four sets of homeologous regions, while nine shoot-associated loci were organized into three sets of homeologous regions. The context sequences of five trait-associated markers matched to the sequences of rice, Brachypodium and maize (E-value < 10−10), including three markers matched to known gene models with potential involvement in seed vigor. These were a glucuronosyltransferase, a mitochondrial carrier protein domain containing protein, and an iron-sulfur cluster protein. This study presents the first GWA study on oat seed vigor and data of this study can provide guidelines and foundation for further investigations.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methods画像ベースの表現型取得パイプラインを開発し、根・シュート形質を抽出して大規模適用しており、フェノタイピング手法が中心的です。
abstractwe developed an easy-to-implement image-based phenotyping pipeline and applied it to 650 elite oat lines from the Collaborative Oat Research Enterprise (CORE).
Reproduction assets found保存済みの本文根拠を更新済みルールで再検証し、公開資産1件を確認しました。Dataset · publicPhenotypic data collected in the study have been uploaded to T3/Oat: https://triticeaetoolbox.org/oat/ .Open asset ↗T3/Oatlines:89-100Code / dataset availability confirmedOpenAlex · Crossref · Europe PMC · checked 9 Sept 2026
In order to train the neural network for plant phenotyping, a sufficient amount of training data must be prepared, which requires time-consuming manual data annotation process that often becomes the limiting step. Here, we show that an instance segmentation neural network aimed to phenotype the barley seed morphology of various cultivars, can be sufficiently trained purely by a synthetically generated dataset. Our attempt is based on the concept of domain randomization, where a large amount of image is generated by randomly orienting the seed object to a virtual canvas. The trained model showed 96% recall and 95% average Precision against the real-world test dataset. We show that our approach is effective also for various crops including rice, lettuce, oat, and wheat. Constructing and utilizing such synthetic data can be a powerful method to alleviate human labor costs for deploying deep learning-based analysis in the agricultural domain.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methods合成データとインスタンスセグメンテーションによる種子形態フェノタイピング手法を開発し、実画像で性能検証しているため、方法が研究の中心である。
abstractan instance segmentation neural network aimed to phenotype the barley seed morphology of various cultivars
Reproduction assets foundThe authors publicly release both the synthetic and real-world seed image datasets and the analysis code (Mask R-CNN deployment and multivariate analysis notebooks) via their GitHub repository, explicitly stated in Data availability and Code availability sections.Dataset · publicSynthetically generated and real-world datasets can be obtained from the following GitHub repository ( https://github.com/totti0223/crop_seed_instance_segmentation ).Open asset ↗https://github.com/totti0223/crop_seed_instance_segmentationlines:149-171Code · publicCode to reproduce the deployment of the trained Mask R-CNN and multivariate analysis is formatted as IPython notebooks and can also be obtained from the GitHub repository ( https://github.com/totti0223/crop_seed_instance_segmentation ).Open asset ↗https://github.com/totti0223/crop_seed_instance_segmentationlines:149-171Code / dataset availability confirmedEurope PMC · checked 10 Sept 2026
Published12 Mar 2019Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic SocietyCited by 21 · OpenAlex ↗
Introduction Oats (Avena sativa L.) are a whole grain cereal recognised for their health benefits and which are cultivated largely in temperate regions providing both a source of food for humans and animals, as well as being used in cosmetics and as a potential treatment for a number of diseases. Oats are known as being a cereal source high in dietary fibre (e.g. β-glucans), as well as being high in antioxidants, minerals and vitamins. Recently, oats have been gaining increased global attention due to their large number of beneficial health effects. Consumption of oats has been proven to lower blood LDL cholesterol levels and blood pressure, thus reducing the risk of heart disease, as well as reducing blood-sugar and insulin levels. Objectives Oats are seen as a low input cereal. Current agricultural guidelines on nitrogen application are believed to be suboptimal and only consider the effect of nitrogen on grain yield. It is important to understand the role of both variety and of crop management in determining nutritional quality of oats. In this study the response of yield, grain quality and grain metabolites to increasing nitrogen application to levels greater than current guidelines were investigated. Methods Four winter oat varieties (Mascani, Tardis, Balado and Gerald) were grown in a replicated nitrogen response trial consisting of a no added nitrogen control and four added nitrogen treatments between 50 and 200 kg N ha -1 in a randomised split-plot design. Grain yield, milling quality traits, β-glucan, total protein and oil content were assessed. The de-hulled oats (groats) were also subjected to a rapid Ultra High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-MS) metabolomic screening approach. Results Application of nitrogen had a significant effect on grain yield but there was no significant difference between the response of the four varieties. Grain quality traits however displayed significant differences both between varieties and nitrogen application level. β-glucan content significantly increased with nitrogen application. The UHPLC-MS approach has provided a rapid, sub 15 min per sample, metabolite profiling method that is repeatable and appropriate for the screening of large numbers of cereal samples. The method captured a wide range of compounds, inclusive of primary metabolites such as the amino acids, organic acids, vitamins and lipids, as well as a number of key secondary metabolites, including the avenanthramides, caffeic acid, and sinapic acid and its derivatives and was able to identify distinct metabolic phenotypes for the varieties studied. Amino acid metabolism was massively upregulated by nitrogen supplementation as were total protein levels, whilst the levels of organic acids were decreased, likely due to them acting as a carbon skeleton source. Several TCA cycle intermediates were also impacted, potentially indicating increased TCA cycle turn over, thus providing the plant with a source of energy and reductant power to aid elevated nitrogen assimilation. Elevated nitrogen availability was also directed towards the increased production of nitrogen containing phospholipids. A number of both positive and negative impacts on the metabolism of phenolic compounds that have influence upon the health beneficial value of oats and their products were also observed. Conclusions Although the developed method has broad applicability as a rapid screening method or a rapid metabolite profiling method and in this study has provided valuable metabolic insights, it still must be considered that much greater confidence in metabolite identification, as well as quantitative precision, will be gained by the application of higher resolution chromatography methods, although at a large expense to sample throughput. Follow up studies will apply higher resolution GC (gas chromatography) and LC (reversed phase and HILIC) approaches, oats will be also analysed from across multiple growth locations and growth seasons, effectively providing a cross validation for the results obtained within this preliminary study. It will also be fascinating to perform more controlled experiments with sampling of green tissues, as well as oat grains, throughout the plants and grains development, to reveal greater insight of carbon and nitrogen metabolism balance, as well as resource partitioning into lipid and secondary metabolism.
Why it matches plant phenotyping methodsUHPLC-MSによる植物代謝表現型の迅速取得法を開発・反復性評価し、大規模穀類サンプルへの適用可能性と限界も示しているため、代謝測定が単なる生物学的実験の補助ではなく方法論の中心である。
abstractThe UHPLC-MS approach has provided a rapid, sub 15 min per sample, metabolite profiling method that is repeatable and appropriate for the screening of large numbers of cereal samples.
Reproduction assets foundThe paper's UHPLC-MS metabolite profiling data (oat nitrogen supplementation study) is publicly deposited in MetaboLights (MTBLS804), and the authors' ASCA/PLS-S analysis scripts are publicly available on GitHub.Code · publicASCA and PLS-S with RFE were performed within MATLAB 2016a using in-house scripts which are made available freely online at https://github.com/Biospec/cluster-toolbox-v2.0 .Open asset ↗GitHub · Biospec/cluster-toolbox-v2.0lines:106-112