Comprehensive 3D phenotyping reveals continuous morphological variation across genetically diverse sorghum...

Area of Science:

• Plant Biology
• Computational Biology
• Agricultural Science

Background:

• Quantifying complex plant inflorescence architecture, especially in cereal grasses, is challenging.
• Current methods capture limited parameters, potentially missing diverse structural variations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply novel imaging and computational tools for detailed 3D analysis of plant inflorescence architecture.
• To investigate the panicle morphology of Sorghum bicolor accessions and assess trait reliability for botanical race classification.

Main Methods:

• Utilized X-ray computed tomography (CT) for high-resolution 3D imaging of sorghum panicles.
• Performed detailed morphometric analysis on 55 sorghum accessions representing five botanical races.

Main Results:

• Seed features proved highly informative for classifying sorghum botanical races.
• Extensive overlap in multivariate trait space indicated a broad phenotypic range within races.

Conclusions:

• Plant morphology, particularly inflorescence traits, shows weak correlation with genetic identity and domestication history in Sorghum bicolor.
• Phenotypic diversity in sorghum extends beyond genetic background, highlighting complex evolutionary dynamics.