Monitoring Photosynthesis by In Vivo Chlorophyll Fluorescence: Application to High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping

Abstract

See, stats, and : https : / / www . researchgate . net / publication / 299599839 Monitoring Vivo : Application - Throughput Plant Chapter DOI : 10 . 5772 / 62391 CITATIONS 0 READS 179 1 : Jorge University 64 SEE Available : Jorge Retrieved : 15 Chapter 1 Abstract In spite of the decrease in the rate of population growth , world population is expected to rise from the current figure (slightly above to 7 . 2 billion) to reach 9 . 6 billion in 2050 . There is therefore a pressing need to increase food production . Since most of the best arable lands are already under production , expanding the agricultural areas would have negative impacts on important natural areas . Thereby , increasing the productivity of the current agricultural areas is the chief objective of agronomical planners , and planting more productive and better adapted plant varieties is crucial to achieve it . In fact , plant breeding is at the forefront of concern of both agronomists and plant biologists . Plant breeding is a millenary activity that deeply changed our world . However , the use of molecular biology techniques jointly with informatics capabilities—giving rise to the omics techniques— deeply accelerated plant breeding , providing new and better plant varieties at an increased pace . The advances in genomics , though , far by - passed the advances in phenomics , and so there is a rising consensus among plant breeders that plant phenotyping isabottle‐necktoadvancingplantbreeding.Therefore,arangeofinternationalinitiativesinhigh-throughputplantphenotyping(HTPP)areatcourse,andnewautomatedequipmentisbeingdeveloped.Phenotypingplants,however,isnotasimplematter.Tobeginwith,ithastobedecidedwhichparameterstomeasureinordertoextrapolatetothedesiredgoals,plantresistanceandplantproductivity.Forthis,aswellasforplantbreeding,anin-depthknowledgeofplantphysiologyisrequired.Photosynthesishasbeenconsideredasagoodindicatorofoverallplantperformance.Itistheonlyenergyinputinplantsandtherebyimpactsallaspectsofplantmetabolismandphysiology.Thecumulativerateofphotosynthesisoverthegrowingseasonistheprimarydeterminantofcropbiomass.Itlargelydeterminestheredoxstateofplantcells,andtherefore,itisatthecoreofregulatorynetworks.Therefore,assessingphotosynthesisandthephotosyntheticapparatusplaysacoreroleonplantphenotyping.Nevertheless,high-throughputphenotypingde‐mandsveryrapidmeasurements,andconsequentlythemostcommonmethodofphotosynthesismeasurement—theinfra-redgasanalysis—isnotwellsuitedforthispurpose.Onthecontrary,thetechniquesbasedoninvivochlorophyll(Chl)afluores‐cencemeasurementsareperfectlyfit.Inthischapter,anhistoricalperspectiveonthedevelopmentofinvivoChlameasurementisbrieflyaddressed.Then,thestateoftheartofthefluorescence-basedtechniquesofphotosynthesisassessmentispresented,andtheirpotentialuseinHTPPisevaluated.Finally,thecurrentuseofthesetechniquesinthemainsystemsofphenotypingissurveyed.