Abstract Detail



Development and Structure

Rubin, Matthew [1], Juan, Alexander [2], DeHaan, Lee [3], Schlautman, Brandon [3], Van Tassel, David [4], Miller, Allison [5].

Growing the botanical foundation for crop development: using plant color profiles to predict plant species, population and performance in the field.

The majority of domesticated plant species are herbaceous annuals and woody perennials. However, many herbaceous perennial species hold potential for future agricultural systems. In addition to multiyear harvest, herbaceous perennials provide many ecosystem services, including erosion control as a result of their large and persistent root systems. However, the multiyear lifespan of perennial species has been a barrier to domestication as it is often required to phenotype the plants over multiple growing seasons. To help overcome this issue, we are developing a predictive framework where traits expressed early in the perennial's life cycle (for example, leaf color profiles) can be used to predict later life-cycle traits of agriculture interest, particularly yield. Using phenomic selection, early life-cycle traits that are correlated with field performance can serve as the selection criteria to identify individuals to advance to the next (pre)breeding generation. We comprehensively phenotyped seed (seed size and morphology) and seedling traits (germination timing, plant size, plant HSV color profiles) under controlled conditions and agronomic traits (flowering time, yield) in the field over multiple growing seasons in 15 perennial crop candidate species from the following three families: Asteraceae (Silphium integrifolium, Helianthus maximiliani), Fabaceae (Astragalus canadensis, Desmanthus illinoensis, Glycyrrhiza lepidota, Lotus corniculatus, Lupinus polyphyllus, Medicago sativa x M. arborea, Onobrychis viciifolia, Trifolium ambiguum) and Poaceae (Elymus canadensis, E. glaucus, E. virginicus, Hordeum brachyantherum, Thinopyrum intermedium). As part of the early life-cycle phenotyping, over 9,000 plants were imaged for between 10 and 21 days on the LemnaTec automated phenotyper at the Danforth Plant Science Center. The images were processed using PlantCV to generate high-dimensional HSV color profiles for each plant on each image day. The HSV color model contains three features: hue, value and saturation. Hue describes color (ranging from 0 to 360 degrees), saturation describes the intensity of the color (ranging from 1 to 100 percent) and lastly value describes the relative brightness of a color (ranging from 1 to 100 percent). Using HSV color profiles we asked the following questions: 1) Are species and populations within a species distinguishable based on traits expressed early in the life-cycle and 2) Can traits expressed early in the life-cycle, like HSV color profiles, measured under controlled conditions predict plant performance in the field? Collectively, this study will provide critical insights into expression of traits throughout the multi-year lifespan of herbaceous perennial plants and provide criteria on new practices to pre-select, maintain, and maximize potentially advantageous traits through the domestication process.


1 - Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, 975 North Warson Road, Miller Lab, St. Louis, MO, 63132, United States
2 - Saint Louis University, Dept. of Biology and Computer Science, 3507 Laclede Avenue, Macelwane Hall, St. Louis, MO, 63110, USA
3 - The Land Institute, 2440 East Water Well Rd, Salina, KS, 67401, USA
4 - The Land Institute, 2440 E Water Well Rd,, Salina, KS, 67401, United States
5 - Saint Louis Univ./Danforth Plant Science Center, Biology, 3507 Laclede Avenue, Macelwane Hall, St. Louis, MO, 63110, United States

Keywords:
Perennial agriculture
HSV color profiles
Phenotypic variation
trait-trait relationship.

Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Number: DS3002
Abstract ID:785
Candidate for Awards:None


Copyright © 2000-2022, Botanical Society of America. All rights reserved