High-throughput plant phenotyping: a role for metabolomics?
Robert D. Hall, John C. D’Auria, A. C. Silva Ferreira, Yves Gibon, Dariusz Kruszka, Puneet Mishra, H.J. van de Zedde
Abstract
High-throughput (HTP) plant phenotyping approaches are developing rapidly and are already helping to bridge the genotype-phenotype gap. However, technologies should be developed beyond current physico-spectral evaluations to extend our analytical capacities to the subcellular level. Metabolites define and determine many key physiological and agronomic features in plants and an ability to integrate a metabolomics approach within current HTP phenotyping platforms has huge potential for added value. While key challenges remain on several fronts, novel technological innovations are upcoming yet under-exploited in a phenotyping context. In this review, we present an overview of the state of the art and how current limitations might be overcome to enable full integration of metabolomics approaches into a generic phenotyping pipeline in the near future.