Remote sensing techniques and stable isotopes as phenotyping tools to assess wheat yield performance: Effects of growing temperature and vernalization.

This study compares distinct phenotypic approaches to assess wheat performance under different growing temperatures and vernalization needs. A set of 38 (winter and facultative) wheat cultivars were planted in Valladolid (Spain) under irrigation and two contrasting planting dates: normal (late autumn), and late (late winter). The late plating trial exhibited a 1.

New avenues for increasing yield and stability in C3 cereals: exploring ear photosynthesis.

Small grain cereals such as wheat, rice and barley are among the most important crops worldwide. Any attempt to increase crop productivity and stability through breeding implies developing new strategies for plant phenotyping, including defining ideotype attributes for selection. Recently, the role of non-foliar photosynthetic organs, particularly the inflorescences, has received increasing attention.

The Hydrogen Isotope Composition δH Reflects Plant Performance.

The stable carbon (δC) and oxygen (δO) isotope compositions in plant matter reflect photosynthetic and transpirative conditions in plants, respectively. However, the nature of hydrogen isotope composition (δH) and what it reflects of plant performance is poorly understood. Using durum wheat ( var ), this study evaluated the effect of different water and nitrogen growing field conditions on transpiration and how this effect influenced the performance of δH in autotrophic (flag leaf), mixotrophic (ears), and heterotrophic (grains and roots) organs.

Cereal Crop Ear Counting in Field Conditions Using Zenithal RGB Images.

Ear density, or the number of ears per square meter (ears/m), is a central focus in many cereal crop breeding programs, such as wheat and barley, representing an important agronomic yield component for estimating grain yield. Therefore, a quick, efficient, and standardized technique for assessing ear density would aid in improving agricultural management, providing improvements in preharvest yield predictions, or could even be used as a tool for crop breeding when it has been defined as a trait of importance. Not only are the current techniques for manual ear density assessments laborious and time-consuming, but they are also without any official standardized protocol, whether by linear meter, area quadrant, or an extrapolation based on plant ear density and plant counts postharvest.

Comparative effect of salinity on growth, grain yield, water use efficiency, δ(13)C and δ(15)N of landraces and improved durum wheat varieties.

Supplemental irrigation with low-quality water will be paramount in Mediterranean agriculture in the future, where durum wheat is a major crop. Breeding for salinity tolerance may contribute towards improving resilience to irrigation with brackish water. However, identification of appropriate phenotyping traits remains a bottleneck in breeding.

Interactive effect of water and nitrogen regimes on plant growth, root traits and water status of old and modern durum wheat genotypes.

The selection of the ideal root drought adaptive traits should take into account the production and maintenance of root tissues alongside the capacity to capture soil resources. Ten old and modern Spanish durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. var durum) genotypes were grown in lysimeters under two contrasting water and nitrogen regimes to study the effect of such growth conditions on: (1) the aerial biomass, (2) the growth and structure of the roots and (3) the relationships of the root structure with aerial biomass, photosynthetic and transpirative characteristics and water use efficiency.

Physiological traits contributed to the recent increase in yield potential of winter wheat from Henan Province, China.

This experiment aims to test the traits responsible for the increase in yield potential of winter wheat released in Henan Province, China. Seven established cultivars released in the last 20 years and three advanced lines were assayed. The results showed that grain yield was positively correlated with harvest index (HI), kernel number per square meter, and aboveground biomass.

Contribution of the ear and the flag leaf to grain filling in durum wheat inferred from the carbon isotope signature: genotypic and growing conditions effects.

The ear, together with the flag leaf, is believed to play a major role as a source of assimilates during grain filling in C3 cereals. However, the intrusive nature of most of the available methodologies prevents reaching conclusive results in this regard. This study compares the carbon isotope composition (δ(13)C) in its natural abundance in the water-soluble fractions of the flag leaf blade and the ear with the δ(13)C of mature kernels to assess the relative contribution of both organs to grain filling in durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L.

High-throughput phenotyping and genomic selection: the frontiers of crop breeding converge.

Genomic selection (GS) and high-throughput phenotyping have recently been captivating the interest of the crop breeding community from both the public and private sectors world-wide. Both approaches promise to revolutionize the prediction of complex traits, including growth, yield and adaptation to stress. Whereas high-throughput phenotyping may help to improve understanding of crop physiology, most powerful techniques for high-throughput field phenotyping are empirical rather than analytical and comparable to genomic selection.