Plant Phenotyping Research Trends, a Science Mapping Approach

Abstract

Modern plant phenotyping, often using non-invasive technologies and digital technologies, is an emerging science and provides essential information on how genetics, epigenetics, environmental pressures, and crop management (farming) can guide selection toward productive plants suitable for their environment. Thus, phenotyping is at the forefront of future plant breeding. Bibliometric science mapping is a quantitative method that analyzes scientific publications throughout the terms present in their title, abstract, and keywords. The aim of this mapping exercise is to observe trends and identify research opportunities. This allows us to analyze the evolution of phenotyping research and to predict emerging topics of this discipline. A total of 1,827 scientific publications fitted our search method over the last 20 years. During the period 1997–2006, the total number of publications was only around 6.1%. The number of publications increased more steeply after 2010, boosted by the overcoming of technological bias and by a set of key developments at hard and software level (image analysis and data storage management, automation and robotics). Cluster analysis evidenced three main groups linked to genetics, physiology, and imaging. Mainly the model plant “Arabidopsis thaliana” and the crops “rice” and “triticum” species were investigated in the literature. The last two species were studied when addressing “plant breeding,” and “genomic selection.” However, currently the trend goes toward a higher diversity of phenotyped crops and research in the field. The application of plant phenotyping in the field is still under rapid development and this application has strong linkages with precision agriculture. EU co-authors were involved in 41.8% of the analyzed papers, followed by USA (15.4%), Australia (6.0%), and India (5.6%). Within the EU, coauthors were mainly affiliated in Germany (35.8%), France (23.7%), and United Kingdom (18.4%). Time seems right for new opportunities to incentivize research on more crops, in real field conditions, and to spread knowledge toward more countries, including emerging economies. Science mapping offers the possibility to get insights into a wide amount of bibliographic information, making them more manageable, attractive, and easy to serve science policy makers, stakeholders, and research managers.

Depicting communities of Romani studies: on the who, when and where of Roma related scientific publications

“…In a term map, similarities among terms are calculated based on their number of co-occur-rences in the title or abstract of the same publication (for further explanation on the method see van Nardi et al 2016;Costa et al 2019). The larger the num-ber of publications in which two terms co-occur, the stronger the terms are related to each other.…”

Trends in research on durum wheat and pasta, a bibliometric mapping approach

“…Term maps are a two‐dimensional representation of a research field produced using VOSviewer. For a more detailed explanation of the analysis, refer to Costa, Schurr, Loreto, Menesatti, & Carpentier, 2019. The assignment of terms to the same cluster depends on their co‐occurrences in the title or abstract of publications.…”

Plant Phenotyping: Past, Present, and Future

“…All these projects and initiatives have considerably changed the landscape of phenotyping infrastructures addressing key questions in plant sciences and integrating the community globally. A recent analysis in the last few decades based on bibliometric mapping pictures plant phenotyping as a rapidly growing research area [37,38]. The resulting demand for phenotyping with new technology and automation has also led to the establishment of a growing commercial sector with focus on plant phenotyping (https://www.datamintelligence.com/research-report/plantphenotyping-market/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI09idzIul4AIV6 LDtCh3bnQFAEAAYASAAEgKT fD BwE).…”