Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 4 — Narrative / commentaryPeer-reviewed

Opportunities and limits of controlled-environment plant phenotyping for climate response traits.

Langstroff A, Heuermann MC, Stahl A, Junker A.

Theor Appl Genet · 2022

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Summary

This review examines the role of controlled-environment phenotyping facilities in breeding crops resilient to future climate scenarios. The authors argue that CE facilities enable high-throughput, automated measurement of climate response traits under repeatable, standardised conditions—data difficult to obtain reliably in field settings. However, the translation of CE-derived phenotypes to real-world field performance remains ambiguous, presenting both methodological opportunity and practical limitation for climate-adaptive breeding programmes.

UK applicability

Directly applicable to UK crop breeding strategy, particularly as climate projections show intensified drought and heat stress risk. Findings support investment in national CE phenotyping infrastructure to accelerate variety development, though recommendations likely emphasise the need for robust field validation alongside CE screening.

Key measures

Climate response traits; stress phenotypes measurable under controlled conditions; comparison of CE phenotyping outputs with field trial validation

Outcomes reported

The review synthesises opportunities and limitations of controlled-environment (CE) phenotyping facilities for assessing crop responses to climate stress conditions. It evaluates how CE-based trait measurements support breeding of climate-adapted varieties, whilst acknowledging challenges in extrapolating results from controlled to field environments.

Theme
Climate & resilience
Subject
Climate & greenhouse gas mitigation
Study type
Narrative Review
Study design
Narrative review
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
International
System type
Arable cereals
DOI
10.1007/s00122-021-03892-1
Catalogue ID
NRmoxtil53-000

Topic tags

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