Journal article

Publication year: 2016

Pages: 2064-2073

Journal: Plant, Cell and Environment

Volume number: 39

Issue number: 9

ISSN: 0140-7791

Open access status: Bronze

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.12737

Publisher: Wiley

Abstract: 
Assessment of yield performance under fluctuating environmental conditions is a major aim of crop breeders. Unfortunately, results from controlled-environment evaluations of complex agronomic traits rarely translate to field performance. A major cause is that crops grown over their complete lifecycle in a greenhouse or growth chamber are generally constricted in their root growth, which influences their response to important abiotic constraints like water or nutrient availability. To overcome this poor transferability, we established a plant growth system comprising large refuse containers (120L wheelie bins') that allow detailed phenotyping of small field-crop populations under semi-controlled growth conditions. Diverse winter oilseed rape cultivars were grown at field densities throughout the crop lifecycle, in different experiments over 2years, to compare seed yields from individual containers to plot yields from multi-environment field trials. We found that we were able to predict yields in the field with high accuracy from container-grown plants. The container system proved suitable for detailed studies of stress response physiology and performance in pre-breeding populations. Investment in automated large-container systems may help breeders improve field transferability of greenhouse experiments, enabling screening of pre-breeding materials for abiotic stress response traits with a positive influence on yield.Controlled-environment evaluations of complex traits rarely translate to field performance. To overcome this problem, we established a large-container plant growth system that allows detailed phenotyping of crop plants at field planting densities in deep soil. Yields of field-grown crops were able to be accurately predicted from container-grown plants, enabling detailed studies of stress response physiology under controlled conditions in relation to field performance.

Harvard Citation style: Hohmann, M., Stahl, A., Rudloff, J., Wittkop, B. and Snowdon, R. (2016) Not a load of rubbish: simulated field trials in large-scale containers, Plant, Cell and Environment, 39(9), pp. 2064-2073. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.12737

APA Citation style: Hohmann, M., Stahl, A., Rudloff, J., Wittkop, B., & Snowdon, R. (2016). Not a load of rubbish: simulated field trials in large-scale containers. Plant, Cell and Environment. 39(9), 2064-2073. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.12737