High-throughput plant phenotyping for improved turfgrass breeding applications

Abstract

Turfgrasses are used extensively throughout the world, and there is a steadfast demand to develop turfgrass varieties with improved abiotic and biotic stress tolerances that will perform well with limited management inputs. Modern breeding programs incorporate advanced breeding strategies such as DNA sequencing and high-throughput phenotyping with traditional breeding strategies to identify and select germplasm and genes of interest. Molecular biology methods and DNA sequencing technology have rapidly increased in recent years, and, as a result, plant phenotyping is currently a bottleneck in the process of advancing breeding programs. Recent advances in remote sensing technology have offered improved, non-destructive plant phenotyping approaches such as visible light imaging, spectral imaging, infrared thermal imaging, range sensing, and fluorescence imaging. Integrated mobile and time efficient platforms are being developed, coupling remote sensing with robotics and unmanned aerial systems technology for high-throughput plant phenotyping applications across large field spaces. Modern turfgrass breeding programs will continue to research, develop, and implement remote sensing technologies to assess larger numbers of genotypes and identify elite germplasm. All together, these efforts will improve cultivar development efficiency and aid plant breeders in developing improved turfgrass cultivars to meet current and future demands of the turfgrass industry. This review provides an overview of ground- and aerial-based plant phenotyping platforms, with particular emphasis placed on applications to turfgrass breeding practices. Similarly, imaging technologies that have been used in various plant breeding programs are discussed, with indications as to how those technologies could be applicable to turfgrass breeding programs.