Use of Imaging as Non-Destructive Tool for Water Stress Tolerance in Spring Barley (Hordeum vulgare)

Climate change poses a major threat on agriculture, thus on food security. Drought stress, a factor in climate change, is a major problem for barley production, since it simultaneously affects morphological, physiological and biochemical traits. The present work was conducted to provide comprehensive information regarding barley genotypes response and adaptation to drought stress by using a high throughput phenotyping approach. Different barley genotypes were grown in a controlled environment greenhouse. Control plants were kept fully irrigated at 100% field capacity (FC), while the treated plants were stressed by reducing irrigation to 50% of FC. The effects of water deficit on barley genotypes development in terms of early detection of plant response to stress. Morpho-physiological parameters were recorded using Scanalyzer 3D High Throughput Phenotyping platform together with more conventional phenotyping methods to identify and select a set of putative drought tolerant genotypes. The results showed significant differences among genotypes in drought stress response based on digital and traditional indices. Among the selected tolerant genotypes, the best performer was a doubled haploid line derived by a cross Roho×Ardhaoui.