As climate change makes conditions for agriculture more adverse, plant breeding must speed up and deliver better adapted plants. Phenomics-assisted breeding can shift QTL detection to earlier stages of plant development so that breeding decisions can take place faster. The LemnaTec Scanalyzers can deliver phenomic data on young plants that correlate with yield-determining traits at mature stages. Thus, the phenotypic analysis with the Scanalyzer allows detecting QTLs in breeding populations. In a study with rice carried out at the Korean NAAS, seedling vigour was determined by extracting plant height data from images. Thereby, it turned out to be a highly valuable tool, having the potential to increase capabilities and speed of rice breeding programs.

Kim SL, Chung YS, Silva RR, Ji H, Lee H, Choi I, Kim N, Lee E, BAEK J, Lee G-S, Kwon T-r, Kim K-h (2019) The opening of phenome-assisted selection era in the early seedling stage. Scientific reports 9:9948; https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-46405-3

Technology used in this study: Conveyor Scanalyzer