Dynamic plant height QTL revealed in maize through remote sensing phenotyping using a high-throughput unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

Abstract

Plant height is the key factor for plant architecture, biomass and yield in maize (Zea mays). In this study, plant height was investigated using unmanned aerial vehicle high-throughput phenotypic platforms (UAV-HTPPs) for maize diversity inbred lines at four important growth stages. Using an automated pipeline, we extracted accurate plant heights. We found that in temperate regions, from sowing to the jointing period, the growth rate for temperate maize was faster than tropical maize. However, from jointing to flowering stage, tropical maize maintained a vigorous growth state, and finally resulted in a taller plant than temperate lines. Genome-wide association study for temperate, tropical and both groups identified a total of 238 quantitative trait locus (QTLs) for the 16 plant height related traits over four growth periods. And, we found that plant height at different stages were controlled by different genes, for example, PIN1 controlled plant height at the early stage and PIN11 at the flowering stages. In this study, the plant height data collected by the UAV-HTTPs were credible and the genetic mapping power is high, indicating that the application of this UAV-HTTPs into the study of plant height will have great prospects.\n\nHighlightWe used UAV-based sensing platform to investigate plant height over 4 growth stages for different maize populations, and detected numbers of reliable QTLs using GWAS.