UAV-Based Phenotyping: A Non-Destructive Approach to Studying Wheat Growth Patterns for Crop Improvement and Breeding Programs

Rising food demands require new techniques to achieve higher genetic gains for crop production, especially in regions where climate can negatively affect agriculture. Wheat is a staple crop that often encounters this challenge, and ideotype breeding with optimized canopy traits for grain yield, such...

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Main Authors: Sabahat Zahra, Henry Ruiz, Jinha Jung, Tyler Adams
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024-10-01
Series:Remote Sensing
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/16/19/3710
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author Sabahat Zahra
Henry Ruiz
Jinha Jung
Tyler Adams
author_facet Sabahat Zahra
Henry Ruiz
Jinha Jung
Tyler Adams
author_sort Sabahat Zahra
collection DOAJ
description Rising food demands require new techniques to achieve higher genetic gains for crop production, especially in regions where climate can negatively affect agriculture. Wheat is a staple crop that often encounters this challenge, and ideotype breeding with optimized canopy traits for grain yield, such as determinate tillering, synchronized flowering, and stay-green (SG), can potentially improve yield under terminal drought conditions. Among these traits, SG has emerged as a key factor for improving grain quality and yield by prolonging photosynthetic activity during reproductive stages. This study aims to highlight the importance of growth dynamics in a wheat mapping population by using multispectral images obtained from uncrewed aerial vehicles as a high-throughput phenotyping technique to assess the effectiveness of using such images for determining correlations between vegetation indices and grain yield, particularly regarding the SG trait. Results show that the determinate group exhibited a positive correlation between NDVI and grain yield, indicating the effectiveness of these traits in yield improvement. In contrast, the indeterminate group, characterized by excessive vegetative growth, showed no significant NDVI–grain yield relationship, suggesting that NDVI values in this group were influenced by sterile tillers rather than contributing to yield. These findings provide valuable insights for crop breeders by offering a non-destructive approach to enhancing genetic gains through the improved selection of resilient wheat genotypes.
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spelling doaj-art-ff4e8adc813d492f826e8f2598bfc31d2025-08-20T01:47:37ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922024-10-011619371010.3390/rs16193710UAV-Based Phenotyping: A Non-Destructive Approach to Studying Wheat Growth Patterns for Crop Improvement and Breeding ProgramsSabahat Zahra0Henry Ruiz1Jinha Jung2Tyler Adams3Molecular & Environmental Plant Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USATexas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Weslaco, TX 78596, USALyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USAMolecular & Environmental Plant Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USARising food demands require new techniques to achieve higher genetic gains for crop production, especially in regions where climate can negatively affect agriculture. Wheat is a staple crop that often encounters this challenge, and ideotype breeding with optimized canopy traits for grain yield, such as determinate tillering, synchronized flowering, and stay-green (SG), can potentially improve yield under terminal drought conditions. Among these traits, SG has emerged as a key factor for improving grain quality and yield by prolonging photosynthetic activity during reproductive stages. This study aims to highlight the importance of growth dynamics in a wheat mapping population by using multispectral images obtained from uncrewed aerial vehicles as a high-throughput phenotyping technique to assess the effectiveness of using such images for determining correlations between vegetation indices and grain yield, particularly regarding the SG trait. Results show that the determinate group exhibited a positive correlation between NDVI and grain yield, indicating the effectiveness of these traits in yield improvement. In contrast, the indeterminate group, characterized by excessive vegetative growth, showed no significant NDVI–grain yield relationship, suggesting that NDVI values in this group were influenced by sterile tillers rather than contributing to yield. These findings provide valuable insights for crop breeders by offering a non-destructive approach to enhancing genetic gains through the improved selection of resilient wheat genotypes.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/16/19/3710remote sensingUAV-based phenotypingmultispectral imagerywheat morphologystay-greenVI data analytics
spellingShingle Sabahat Zahra
Henry Ruiz
Jinha Jung
Tyler Adams
UAV-Based Phenotyping: A Non-Destructive Approach to Studying Wheat Growth Patterns for Crop Improvement and Breeding Programs
Remote Sensing
remote sensing
UAV-based phenotyping
multispectral imagery
wheat morphology
stay-green
VI data analytics
title UAV-Based Phenotyping: A Non-Destructive Approach to Studying Wheat Growth Patterns for Crop Improvement and Breeding Programs
title_full UAV-Based Phenotyping: A Non-Destructive Approach to Studying Wheat Growth Patterns for Crop Improvement and Breeding Programs
title_fullStr UAV-Based Phenotyping: A Non-Destructive Approach to Studying Wheat Growth Patterns for Crop Improvement and Breeding Programs
title_full_unstemmed UAV-Based Phenotyping: A Non-Destructive Approach to Studying Wheat Growth Patterns for Crop Improvement and Breeding Programs
title_short UAV-Based Phenotyping: A Non-Destructive Approach to Studying Wheat Growth Patterns for Crop Improvement and Breeding Programs
title_sort uav based phenotyping a non destructive approach to studying wheat growth patterns for crop improvement and breeding programs
topic remote sensing
UAV-based phenotyping
multispectral imagery
wheat morphology
stay-green
VI data analytics
url https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/16/19/3710
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AT jinhajung uavbasedphenotypinganondestructiveapproachtostudyingwheatgrowthpatternsforcropimprovementandbreedingprograms
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