Phenotyping-based spectral signatures uncover barley cultivars’ sensitivity to combined mildew and drought treatment

The plant’s phenotype changes under biotic and abiotic stress, reflecting its adaptations in gene expression and metabolism. For crop management, rapid detection of plant stress responses is crucial. To facilitate rapid detection of stress responses in crops, we explored the potential of UCPH’s Phen...

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Main Authors: Chandana Pandey, Søren Gjedde Sommer, Thomas Roitsch, Alexander Schulz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-08-01
Series:Smart Agricultural Technology
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375525002333
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author Chandana Pandey
Søren Gjedde Sommer
Thomas Roitsch
Alexander Schulz
author_facet Chandana Pandey
Søren Gjedde Sommer
Thomas Roitsch
Alexander Schulz
author_sort Chandana Pandey
collection DOAJ
description The plant’s phenotype changes under biotic and abiotic stress, reflecting its adaptations in gene expression and metabolism. For crop management, rapid detection of plant stress responses is crucial. To facilitate rapid detection of stress responses in crops, we explored the potential of UCPH’s PhenoLab for assessing barley disease resistance under both biotic and abiotic stress. We used this high-throughput macroscopic phenotyping platform to assess barley disease resistance and combined pathogen and abiotic stress response nondestructively by reflectance and fluorescence imaging over time and validate them spectroscopically in leaf extracts. At specific wavelengths, PhenoLab spectral signatures clearly distinguished cultivars with different levels of susceptibility to the obligate biotroph pathogen Blumeria graminis (powdery mildew). Microscope phenotyping at similar reflectance and fluorescence settings parallelled the PhenoLab-derived spectral signatures. However, a specific systemic resistance response emerged three days after inoculation, detectable only by microscopy when targeting infected and non-infected leaf areas. We hypothesized that combined stresses would work additively and used phenotyping to study the response of the resistant and susceptible barley cultivar to a combination of drought with powdery mildew infection. Surprisingly, drought made the resistant cultivar less resistant and the susceptible one less susceptible according to changes in reflectance and fluorescence at defined wavelengths. The spectroscopic absorbance assay confirmed this result biochemically. This proof-of-concept study showcases the potential of holistic functional phenomics, using non-invasive imaging to identify predictive spectral signatures for barley pathogen resistance.
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spelling doaj-art-ecc6291bd1154aeda5df77f61f30f9c32025-08-20T03:48:18ZengElsevierSmart Agricultural Technology2772-37552025-08-011110100010.1016/j.atech.2025.101000Phenotyping-based spectral signatures uncover barley cultivars’ sensitivity to combined mildew and drought treatmentChandana Pandey0Søren Gjedde Sommer1Thomas Roitsch2Alexander Schulz3Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, DenmarkDepartment of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, DenmarkDepartment of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Brno, Czech RepublicDepartment of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Corresponding author.The plant’s phenotype changes under biotic and abiotic stress, reflecting its adaptations in gene expression and metabolism. For crop management, rapid detection of plant stress responses is crucial. To facilitate rapid detection of stress responses in crops, we explored the potential of UCPH’s PhenoLab for assessing barley disease resistance under both biotic and abiotic stress. We used this high-throughput macroscopic phenotyping platform to assess barley disease resistance and combined pathogen and abiotic stress response nondestructively by reflectance and fluorescence imaging over time and validate them spectroscopically in leaf extracts. At specific wavelengths, PhenoLab spectral signatures clearly distinguished cultivars with different levels of susceptibility to the obligate biotroph pathogen Blumeria graminis (powdery mildew). Microscope phenotyping at similar reflectance and fluorescence settings parallelled the PhenoLab-derived spectral signatures. However, a specific systemic resistance response emerged three days after inoculation, detectable only by microscopy when targeting infected and non-infected leaf areas. We hypothesized that combined stresses would work additively and used phenotyping to study the response of the resistant and susceptible barley cultivar to a combination of drought with powdery mildew infection. Surprisingly, drought made the resistant cultivar less resistant and the susceptible one less susceptible according to changes in reflectance and fluorescence at defined wavelengths. The spectroscopic absorbance assay confirmed this result biochemically. This proof-of-concept study showcases the potential of holistic functional phenomics, using non-invasive imaging to identify predictive spectral signatures for barley pathogen resistance.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375525002333BarleyPowdery mildewPhenotypingSpectral signature
spellingShingle Chandana Pandey
Søren Gjedde Sommer
Thomas Roitsch
Alexander Schulz
Phenotyping-based spectral signatures uncover barley cultivars’ sensitivity to combined mildew and drought treatment
Smart Agricultural Technology
Barley
Powdery mildew
Phenotyping
Spectral signature
title Phenotyping-based spectral signatures uncover barley cultivars’ sensitivity to combined mildew and drought treatment
title_full Phenotyping-based spectral signatures uncover barley cultivars’ sensitivity to combined mildew and drought treatment
title_fullStr Phenotyping-based spectral signatures uncover barley cultivars’ sensitivity to combined mildew and drought treatment
title_full_unstemmed Phenotyping-based spectral signatures uncover barley cultivars’ sensitivity to combined mildew and drought treatment
title_short Phenotyping-based spectral signatures uncover barley cultivars’ sensitivity to combined mildew and drought treatment
title_sort phenotyping based spectral signatures uncover barley cultivars sensitivity to combined mildew and drought treatment
topic Barley
Powdery mildew
Phenotyping
Spectral signature
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772375525002333
work_keys_str_mv AT chandanapandey phenotypingbasedspectralsignaturesuncoverbarleycultivarssensitivitytocombinedmildewanddroughttreatment
AT sørengjeddesommer phenotypingbasedspectralsignaturesuncoverbarleycultivarssensitivitytocombinedmildewanddroughttreatment
AT thomasroitsch phenotypingbasedspectralsignaturesuncoverbarleycultivarssensitivitytocombinedmildewanddroughttreatment
AT alexanderschulz phenotypingbasedspectralsignaturesuncoverbarleycultivarssensitivitytocombinedmildewanddroughttreatment