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Root Phenomics

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Phenomics

Abstract

Root systems have several functions that go beyond of plant support. Several metabolic reactions in plant roots are initiated that adjust them to a stress that can be instantaneous or permanent. Thus, many breeders believe that the key to success for obtaining genotypes tolerant to many types of abiotics is situated below the soil surface. Because of this, for decades much efforts have been invested in trying to develop tools that enable to analyze precisely the growth and development of roots under undesirable conditions. In the early 2000s were created some hardwares and softwares that enabled evaluation of several root parameters such as length, volume, surface area, projected area, among others. However, most of them have the disadvantage of destroying the sample to be evaluated. Recently, others methods have been developed which enable large-scale phenotyping, such as computed tomography-based. They are important for breeding programs because they allow evaluation of hundreds of genotypes in an easy and fast way. Moreover, they are not destructive methods and they permit to follow the root development in several phenological phases of the plant and in real- time. Given the above, the aim of this chapter is present the most used methods of root phenotyping for plant breeding . For that, we present some procedures and their computational basis, followed by their advantages and limitations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Federal University of Ceará (Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC), Fortaleza, Brazil

    Júlio César DoVale

  2. Departamento de Genética , University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil

    Roberto Fritsche-Neto

Authors
  1. Júlio César DoVale
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  2. Roberto Fritsche-Neto
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Correspondence to Júlio César DoVale .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Genética, University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil

    Roberto Fritsche-Neto

  2. Departamento de Fitotecnia, Federal University of Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil

    Aluízio Borém

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DoVale, J.C., Fritsche-Neto, R. (2015). Root Phenomics. In: Fritsche-Neto, R., Borém, A. (eds) Phenomics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13677-6_4

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