Background: In crops, inflorescence complexity and the shape and size of the seed are among the most important characters that influence yield. For example, rice panicles vary considerably in the number and order of branches, elongation of the axis, and the shape and size of the seed. Manual low-throughput phenotyping methods are time consuming, and the results are unreliable. However, high-throughput image analysis of the qualitative and quantitative traits of rice panicles is essential for understanding the diversity of the panicle as well as for breeding programs.
Results: This paper presents P-TRAP software (Panicle TRAit Phenotyping), a free open source application for high-throughput measurements of panicle architecture and seed-related traits. The software is written in Java and can be used with different platforms (the user-friendly Graphical User Interface (GUI) uses Netbeans Platform 7.3). The application offers three main tools: a tool for the analysis of panicle structure, a spikelet/grain counting tool, and a tool for the analysis of seed shape. The three tools can be used independently or simultaneously for analysis of the same image. Results are then reported in the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Comma Separated Values (CSV) file formats. Images of rice panicles were used to evaluate the efficiency and robustness of the software. Compared to data obtained by manual processing, P-TRAP produced reliable results in a much shorter time. In addition, manual processing is not repeatable because dry panicles are vulnerable to damage. The software is very useful, practical and collects much more data than human operators.
Conclusions: P-TRAP is a new open source software that automatically recognizes the structure of a panicle and the seeds on the panicle in numeric images. The software processes and quantifies several traits related to panicle structure, detects and counts the grains, and measures their shape parameters. In short, P-TRAP offers both efficient results and a user-friendly environment for experiments. The experimental results showed very good accuracy compared to field operator, expert verification and well-known academic methods.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2229-13-122 | DOI Listing |
mBio
January 2025
Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural & Applied Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Bacteriophages (phages) are being investigated as potential biocontrol agents for the suppression of bacterial diseases in cultivated crops. Jumbo bacteriophages, which possess genomic DNA larger than 200 kbp, generally have a broader host range than other phages and therefore would be useful as biocontrol agents against a wide range of bacterial strains. Thus, the characterization of novel jumbo phages specific for agricultural pathogens would be of importance for the development of phage biocontrol strategies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants (Basel)
January 2025
Rice Research Institute, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei 230031, China.
Grain chalkiness adversely affects rice quality, and the positional variation of grain chalkiness within a rice panicle presents a substantial obstacle to quality improvement in China. However, the molecular mechanism underlying this variation is unclear. This study conducted a genetic and physiological analysis of grains situated at distinct positions (upper, middle, and bottom primary branches of the rice panicle, denoted as Y1, Y2, and Y3) within a rice panicle using the Yangdao 6 variety.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlants (Basel)
January 2025
College of Coastal Agriculture Sciences, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China.
Salt stress is an important factor affecting the growth and development of rice, and prohexadione calcium (Pro-Ca) plays an important role in alleviating rice salt stress and improving rice yield. However, there are few studies on how Pro-Ca improves rice yield under salt stress by regulating the source-sink metabolism. In this study, we used Guanghong 3 (salt-tolerant variety) and Huanghuazhan (salt-sensitive variety) as experimental materials to investigate the dynamic changes in the synthesis and partitioning of nonstructural carbohydrates among source-sink, the dynamic changes in related enzyme activities, the effects of the source-sink metabolism on yield in rice under salt stress and the effect of Pro-Ca during the filling period.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAoB Plants
January 2025
Department of Biology, Loyola University Chicago 1032 W. Sheridan Rd. Chicago, IL 60660, United States.
The shift from outcrossing to predominantly selfing is one of the most common transitions in plant evolution. This evolutionary shift has received considerable attention from biologists; however, this work has almost exclusively been focused on animal-pollinated systems. Despite the seminal ecological and economic importance of wind-pollinated species, the mechanisms controlling the degree of outcrossing in wind-pollinated taxa remain poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeliyon
January 2025
Department of Agronomy, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, 2202, Bangladesh.
Reducing the harmful chemical use along with obtaining potential yield in field is a worth exploring practice in rice cultivation. To mitigate the prevailing yield gap, the current study was designed to evaluate the effect of chitosan in improving growth, yield contributing characters and yield of rice. The experiment comprised eight different treatments control (no fertilizer and Chitosan) (T), conventional method (with fertilizers) (T), conventional method with foliar spray of 100 ppm chitosan solution (T), conventional method with foliar spray of 300 ppm chitosan solution (T), conventional method with foliar spray of 500 ppm chitosan solution (T), only foliar spray of 100 ppm chitosan solution (T), only foliar spray of 300 ppm chitosan solution (T), and only foliar spray of 500 ppm chitosan solution (T).
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