Phenotyping Anther Extrusion Of Wheat Using Image Analysis

Phenotyping wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is time-consuming and new methods are necessary to decrease labor. To develop a heterotic pool of male wheat lines for hybrid breeding, there must be an efficient way to measure both anther extrusion and the size of anthers. Five hundred and ninety-four soft red winter wheat lines in two replications of randomized complete block design were phenotyped for anther extrusion, a key trait for hybrid wheat production. A device was constructed to capture images using a mobile device. Four heads were sampled per line when anthesis was evident for half the heads in the plot. The extruded anthers were scraped onto a surface, their image was captured, and the area of the anthers was taken via ImageJ. The number of anthers extruded was estimated by counting the number of anthers per image and dividing by the number of heads sampled. The area per anther was taken by dividing the area of anthers per spike by the number of anthers per spike. A significant correlation (R=0.9, p<0.0001) was observed between the area of anthers per spike and the number of anthers per spike. This method is proposed as a substitute for field ratings of anther extrusion and to quantitatively measure the size of anthers.