AUTHOR=Mikołajczak Krzysztof , Ogrodowicz Piotr , Ćwiek-Kupczyńska Hanna , Weigelt-Fischer Kathleen , Mothukuri Srinivasa Reddy , Junker Astrid , Altmann Thomas , Krystkowiak Karolina , Adamski Tadeusz , Surma Maria , Kuczyńska Anetta , Krajewski Paweł TITLE=Image Phenotyping of Spring Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) RIL Population Under Drought: Selection of Traits and Biological Interpretation JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science VOLUME=11 YEAR=2020 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.00743 DOI=10.3389/fpls.2020.00743 ISSN=1664-462X ABSTRACT=

Image-based phenotyping is a non-invasive method that permits the dynamic evaluation of plant features during growth, which is especially important for understanding plant adaptation and temporal dynamics of responses to environmental cues such as water deficit or drought. The aim of the present study was to use high-throughput imaging in order to assess the variation and dynamics of growth and development during drought in a spring barley population and to investigate associations between traits measured in time and yield-related traits measured after harvesting. Plant material covered recombinant inbred line population derived from a cross between European and Syrian cultivars. After placing the plants on the platform (28th day after sowing), drought stress was applied for 2 weeks. Top and side cameras were used to capture images daily that covered the visible range of the light spectrum, fluorescence signals, and the near infrared spectrum. The image processing provided 376 traits that were subjected to analysis. After 32 days of image phenotyping, the plants were cultivated in the greenhouse under optimal watering conditions until ripening, when several architecture and yield-related traits were measured. The applied data analysis approach, based on the clustering of image-derived traits into groups according to time profiles of statistical and genetic parameters, permitted to select traits representative for inference from the experiment. In particular, drought effects for 27 traits related to convex hull geometry, texture, proportion of brown pixels and chlorophyll intensity were found to be highly correlated with drought effects for spike traits and thousand grain weight.