Characterizing Genotype-Specific Rice Architectural Traits Using Smart Mobile App and Data Modeling

Abstract

The quantity and quality of light captured by a plant’s canopy control many of its growth and development processes. However, light quality-related processes are not very well represented in most traditional and functional–structural crop models, which has been a major barrier to furthering crop model improvement and to better capturing the genetic control and environment modification of plant growth and development. A main challenge is the difficulty in obtaining dynamic data on plant canopy architectural characteristics. Current approaches on the measurement of 3D traits often relies on technologies that are either costly, excessively complicated, or impractical for field use. This study presents a methodology to estimate plant 3D traits using smart mobile app and data modeling. Leaf architecture data on 16 genotypes of rice were collected during two crop seasons using the smart-app PocketPlant3D. Quadratic Bézier curves were fitted to leaf lamina for estimation of insertion angle, elevation angle, and curve height. Leaf azimuth angle distribution, leaf phyllotaxis, canopy leaf angle distribution, and light extinction coefficients were also analyzed. The results could be used for breeding line selection or for parameterizing or evaluating rice 3D architectural models. The methodology opens new opportunities for strengthening the integration of plant 3D architectural traits in crop modeling, better capturing the genetic control and environment modification of plant growth and development, and for improving ideotype-based plant breeding.

Three-Dimensional Wheat Modelling Based on Leaf Morphological Features and Mesh Deformation

“…Fournier et al [8] accurately described the birth direction and the vein spatial curve of wheat leaves and the precise position of the leaves in 3D space by using the 3D digitizer. Yang et al [28] predicted different leaf shapes using leaf and elevation angles as well as curvature. These studies show that the 3D leaf morphology can be represented by both the size and the 3D space posture indices of the leaf.…”