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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2021.08.12.456112

A low-cost greenhouse-based high-throughput phenotyping platform for genetic studies: a case study in maize under inoculation with plant growth-promoting bacteria

Yassue, R. M.·Galli, G.·Borsato Junior, R.·Cheng, H.·Morota, G.·Fritsche-Neto, R.
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Abstract

Greenhouse-based high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) presents a useful approach for studying novel plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB). Despite the potential of this approach to leverage genetic variability for breeding new maize cultivars exhibiting highly stable symbiosis with PGPB, greenhouse-based HTP platforms are not yet widely used because they are highly expensive; hence, it is challenging to perform HTP studies under a limited budget. In this study, we built a low-cost greenhouse-based HTP platform to collect growth-related image-derived phenotypes. We assessed 360 inbred maize lines with or without PGPB inoculation under nitrogen-limited conditions. Plant height, canopy coverage, and canopy volume obtained from photogrammetry were evaluated five times during early maize development. A plant biomass index was constructed as a function of plant height and canopy coverage. Inoculation with PGPB promoted plant growth. Phenotypic correlations between the image-derived phenotypes and manual measurements were at least 0.6. The genomic heritability estimates of the image-derived phenotypes ranged from 0.23 to 0.54. Moderate-to-strong genomic correlations between the plant biomass index and shoot dry mass (0.24-0.47) and between HTP-based plant height and manually measured plant height (0.55-0.68) across the developmental stages showed the utility of our HTP platform. Collectively, our results demonstrate the usefulness of the low-cost HTP platform for large-scale genetic and management studies to capture plant growth. Core ideasO_LIA low-cost greenhouse-based HTP platform was developed. C_LIO_LIImage-derived phenotypes presented moderate to high genomic heritabilities and correlations. C_LIO_LIPlant growth-promoting bacteria can improve plant resilience under nitrogen-limited conditions. C_LI

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Yassue, R. M., Galli, G., Borsato Junior, R., Cheng, H., Morota, G., Fritsche-Neto, R.. 2021-08-13. A low-cost greenhouse-based high-throughput phenotyping platform for genetic studies: a case study in maize under inoculation with plant growth-promoting bacteria. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.12.456112

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