Resources for image-based high throughput phenotyping in crops and data sharing challenges

Monica F Danilevicz, Philipp E Bayer, Benjamin J Nestor, Mohammed Bennamoun, David Edwards
2021 Plant Physiology  
High throughput phenotyping (HTP) platforms are capable of monitoring the phenotypic variation of plants through multiple types of sensors such as RGB cameras, hyperspectral sensors and computed tomography, which can be associated with environmental and genotypic data. Because of the wide range of information provided, HTP datasets represent a valuable asset to characterise crop phenotypes. As HTP becomes widely employed with more tools and data being released, it is important that researchers
more » ... re aware of these resources and how they can be applied to accelerate crop improvement. Researchers may exploit these datasets either for phenotype comparison or employ them as a benchmark to assess tool performance and to support the development of tools that are better at generalising between different crops and environments. In this review, we describe the use of image-based HTP for yield prediction, root phenotyping, development of climate-resilient crops, detecting pathogen and pest infestation and quantitative trait measurement. We emphasise the need for researchers to share phenotypic data, and offer a comprehensive list of available datasets to assist crop breeders and tool developers to leverage these resources in order to accelerate crop breeding.
doi:10.1093/plphys/kiab301 pmid:34608963 pmcid:PMC8561249 fatcat:n3xbdcw635fc3oldmbcbvagp7a