Application of ground-based high-throughput phenotyping platforms in cereal breeding – a review

Abstract

Cereals are the most widely grown crops in Europe, accounting for 53.8% of total crop area. Today’s farmers are facing serious challenges – climate change, resource scarcity and population growth, which can have a negative impact on the quantity and cost of agricultural production. It is therefore important to focus on the development of cereal breeding programmes and the introduction of new technologies, including High-Throughput phenotyping methods. The aim of this paper was to analyse the recent scientific literature on the current use of ground-based sensors applied in High-Throughput Phenotyping Platforms (HTPPs) for the assessment and analysis of morphological and physiological traits in cereals and for the selection of high-yielding genotypes. This enables the breeder to asses and identify genotypes of interest more quickly and accurately at different stages of plant development and in larger field and laboratory trials than with traditional breeding methods. The paper also provides information on the potential of using ground-based HTPPs, the most important methodological principles in setting up trials and measuring traits to ensure the accuracy of the assessments and the processing and interpretation of the results.