Remote sensing –Beyond images Mexico 14-15 December 2013 The workshop was organized by CIMMYT Global Conservation Agriculture Program (GCAP) and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Mexican Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), CGIAR Research Program on Maize, the Cereal System Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) and the Sustainable Modernization of the Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro)

1. Approaches and needs of remote
sensing in phenotyping for plant
breeding
C. Mariano Cossani
Wheat Physiology Group- Global Wheat Program

2. Are breeders using remote sensing?
YES!!!
Environmental characterization… (Private company, Sunflower breeder)
Phenotyping parental lines (crossing block) for physiological traits;
(ii) Selection in early generations; (iii) Selection responding to
stress/agronomic management … (Private company, Wheat Breeder)
Measuring special traits (NDVI and CT)… (CIMMYT, wheat breeder)
What do the breeders expect from remote sensing?
Better environmental characterization, soil moisture, stress indices
Reduced time between acquisition and interpretation of data
High through put in the field and in the DATA PROCESSING

3. A priori requisites for correct phenotyping, and
properly interpretation of results
Major genes for phenology are not fixed
in most experimental wheat populations
● RILs populations
typically show a 30+
day range in flowering
● Because growth
stages are not equally
sensitive to stress,
diverse phenology
confounds effects of:
weather fluctuation
soil moisture depletion
Rainfall, temperatures

4. Kukri/RAC-875 DH popln (n=375) has diverse phenology;
QTL analysis for yield under stress identifies only PpdB1 & Ppd-D1
2B
5B
2D
3B
7A
7B
Mex heat
Mex drought
RAC drought
Minn drought
Bool drought

5. When the population is split in two phenology groups, the true
stress adaptive QTL were identified (on 7A, 7B and 3B)
Reynolds, Manes, Izanloo, Langridge (2009)
Phenotyping for physiological breeding and gene discovery in wheat.
Annals of Applied Biology: 155: 309–320
3B
7A
Late sub-population
•7A on early & late subpops
•7B on late pop
•3B on early pop
7B
7A
Early sub-population

6. Accurate design and/or definition of the experimental
environment
Soil characteristics: Soil moisture, Field Capacity,
Conductivity, Fertility, if possible monitoring also during the
season… stress indices
Tools like EM38 could help to do environment characterization

7. Opportunities
Exploring Trait Diversity of Genetic
Resources
In situ landrace
Oaxaca, Mexico
K.C. Bansal
Director of
NBPGR,
India
~ 0.5 million
accessions of
genetic
resources
in collections
worldwide for
wheat.
The World
Wheat
Collection at
CIMMYT has
~170,000

8. HTP Tools
CT is one of the most useful physiological traits
complementing breeding
Rapid
•10 sec
Economical
•$100
Effective
Selecting for CT in addition to visual selection for plant
type, improved the ability to identify the very highest
yielding lines

9. New lines based on physiological trait (PT) criteria

12. Next Step
Aerial remote sensing phenotyping platforms
Carotenoids
Carotenoids
Wax
Wax
Pigments Ratios
Pigments Ratios
Fluorescence
Fluorescence
Biomass/yield
Biomass/yield
Plant Height
Plant Height
Intercepted Radiation
Intercepted Radiation
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis

13. Thanks for your attention!