High-throughput root phenotyping : opportunities and challenges for the adaptation of arid and semi arid crops to future climates
Résumé
Emerging constraints associated with climate change are posing an increasing threat to crop yields. In the arid and semiarid regions of Africa, crop failure, due to extreme events such as drought, is predicted to cause major food security issues.
Root traits can improve crop resilience to drought and poor soil conditions by increasing the crop's ability to acquire water and soil nutrients. However, selection based on root traits in agronomically meaningful contexts poses practical challenges.
In fact, phenotyping represents a major bottleneck for root traits breeding, with trade-offs between precision and throughput. In this chapter, we will describe advances in low- and high-throughput root observation and sampling methods that can be easily deployed to measure root traits in field conditions. We will further describe a high-throughput root phenotyping pipeline that has recently been implemented to phenotype root architectural and anatomical traits in pearl millet grown in West African Sahelian conditions. These new methods can facilitate the selection of next generation crops with improved root systems that are more adapted to future climates.