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Phenotyping study uses imaging technology

A University of Wisconsin team is using computer image technology to measure plant characteristics.  Botanist Edgar Spaulding tells Brownfield they are using high throughput imaging and computers for phenotyping or studying how a plant’s genes are expressed in the environment.  “We can change the genotype by breeding or manipulation, and then we want to understand how when you do that, how does the phenotype change, it’s growth rate, it’s stature, it’s shape and size and chemical attributes, so that’s what unfolds out of the genotype.”

Spaulding says the imaging technology allows them to measure a large number of samples quickly and more accurately than measuring by hand.  “We can acquire images of ears with a flatbed document scanner, in fact, a bank of them so you can get throughput and then write computer code that will go along the ear and measure the spacing of the kernels, measure the size and shape of the ear, how does it taper or is it blunt?”

And that information is useful to plant breeders who need to know how the different varieties perform as they develop new seed varieties.

Spaulding says they are now imaging corn, carrots, and sorghum at the Wisconsin Crop Innovation Center and the software for analyzing the plants is being shared with other universities and the agronomy industry.