Improving the efficiency of soybean breeding with high-throughput canopy phenotyping
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Plant Methods Open Access
RESEARCH
Improving the efficiency of soybean breeding with high‑throughput canopy phenotyping Fabiana Freitas Moreira1, Anthony Ahau Hearst2, Keith Aric Cherkauer2 and Katy Martin Rainey1*
Abstract Background: In the early stages of plant breeding programs high-quality phenotypes are still a constraint to improve genetic gain. New field-based high-throughput phenotyping (HTP) platforms have the capacity to rapidly assess thousands of plots in a field with high spatial and temporal resolution, with the potential to measure secondary traits correlated to yield throughout the growing season. These secondary traits may be key to select more time and most efficiently soybean lines with high yield potential. Soybean average canopy coverage (ACC), measured by unmanned aerial systems (UAS), is highly heritable, with a high genetic correlation with yield. The objective of this study was to compare the direct selection for yield with indirect selection using ACC and using ACC as a covariate in the yield prediction model (Yield|ACC) in early stages of soybean breeding. In 2015 and 2016 we grew progeny rows (PR) and collected yield and days to maturity (R8) in a typical way and canopy coverage using a UAS carrying an RGB camera. The best soybean lines were then selected with three parameters, Yield, ACC and Yield|ACC, and advanced to preliminary yield trials (PYT). Results: We found that for the PYT in 2016, after adjusting yield for R8, there was no significant difference among the mean performances of the lines selected based on ACC and Yield. In the PYT in 2017 we found that the highest yield mean was from the lines directly selected for yield, but it may be due to environmental constraints in the canopy growth. Our results indicated that PR selection using Yield|ACC selected the most top-ranking lines in advanced yield trials. Conclusions: Our findings emphasize the value of aerial HTP platforms for early stages of plant breeding. Though ACC selection did not result in the best performance lines in the second year of selections, our results indicate that ACC has a role in the effective selection of high-yielding soybean lines. Keywords: Soybean, High-throughput phenotyping, Breeding, Canopy coverage, ACC Background Breeders are challenged to increase the rate of genetic gain. Genetic gain in a crop breeding program can be defined as �G = h2 iσp L , where h2 is the narrow-sense heritability, i is the selection intensity, σp is the phenotypic standard deviation and L is the breeding cycle time or generation [1]. This equation translates theoretical *Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, 915 West State Street, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
quantitative genetics into parameters that breeders can manipulate in their breeding pipelines [2]. In this context genetic gain can be increased in a number of ways, including: increasing population size to increase selection intensity, shorte
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