Quantifying wheat spike morphology by high resolution 3D surface scanning

An understanding of spike shape will be of great benefit for improving wheat yields. Traditional manual measurements of spike traits are slow and prone to human error, preventing large-scale phenotyping. Employing imaging techniques will allow researchers to measure multiple morphometric parameters simultaneously. While 2D imaging provides a rapid screening method, 3D imaging offer a more comprehensive understanding of spike shape, revealing complex external structures. This study addresses the challenge of developing a high-resolution 3D surface-scanning pipeline to accurately quantify wheat spike morphology across diverse genotypes. Using a 3D surface-scanner, sharp point clouds of individual spikes were reconstructed and automatically aligned and analysed to extract key morphological features including spike length, volume, and cross-sectional area profile. New shape descriptors based on cross-sectional area profiles, local extremes, statistical curve fitting, segmentation of spikes into zones of aborted spikelets, base and apical segments as well as the extraction of spike/spikelets branching and endpoints of components were introduced to capture detailed structural variation between genotypes. Correlations between the 3D-derived traits and traditional metrics such as spike weight, spikelet number and seed weight confirmed the biological relevance of the extracted parameters. The method distinguished morphological differences among twelve wheat genotypes, revealing distinct shape types such as long, short, compact, and awned spikes. By combining precise 3D imaging with computational analysis, this approach provides a non-destructive framework for spike phenotyping. These findings demonstrate that 3D surface-scanning can deliver accurate and reproducible measurements of wheat spike architecture, offering new opportunities for linking morphology with genetics and yield potential in modern breeding programs.