Talking Plant Science with Assistant Professor Daniela Bustos-Korts

The ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Success in Nature and Agriculture is proud to bring you the next seminar in our Talking Plant Science series.
'From trait dynamics to GxE for the target trait: Utilizing Stay Green and Multiple Physiological Traits for Enhanced Wheat Adaptation to Contrasting Drought Conditions'
Daniela Bustos-Korts
Universidad Austral de Chile
Understanding and predicting genotype adaptation to complex stresses such as drought can be significantly enhanced by integrating information from secondary phenotypes. These phenotypes may include various yield components measured at a single time point or encompass trait dynamics over time. The stay green trait, which reflects a genotype's ability to maintain greener canopies under drought conditions, has emerged as a promising candidate for yield prediction; genotypes exhibiting this trait tend to sustain grain filling rates, resulting in improved yields during drought events. However, modelling these traits presents challenges due to the hierarchical error structure inherent in high-throughput phenotyping, which encompasses measurement, plot, and genotypic errors, alongside the complex dynamics of the trait itself. In this study, we employ one-dimensional and two-dimensional P-splines to disentangle measurement and plot errors from true genotypic signals. This approach enables us to effectively model the dynamics of the stay green trait and its interaction with genotype-by-environment (GxE) effects over time, as demonstrated with a diverse panel of spring wheat grown in contrasting water regimes in Chile.