Correction to "From Data to Discovery: Characterizing the Scope and Limitations of Seedling Trait Studies in the U.S....

Crop cultivation has a long history in human civilization, with records showing the cultivation of cereal plants beginning at around 8000 BC. This early plant breeding was developed primarily to provide a steady supply of food.

In order to produce glucose, plants need to capture sufficient light energy. Many modern plants have evolved leaves specialized for light acquisition. Leaves can be only millimeters in width or tens of meters wide, depending on the environment. Due to competition for sunlight, evolution has driven the development of increasingly larger leaves and taller plants, to avoid shading by their neighbors, along with the elaboration of root architecture and mechanisms to transport water and...