Stalk lodging (breaking of agricultural plant stalks prior to harvest) is a multi-billion dollar a year problem. Rind penetration resistance tests have been used by plant scientists and breeders to estimate the stalk lodging resistance of maize for nearly a hundred years. However, the rind puncture method has two key limitations: (1) the predictive power of the test decreases significantly when measuring elite or pre-commercial hybrids, and (2) using rind penetration measurements as a breeding metric does not necessarily create stronger stalks. In this study, we present a new rind penetration method called the Integrated Puncture Score, which uses a modified rind penetration testing protocol and a physics-based model to provide a robust measure of stalk lodging resistance. Two datasets, one with a diverse array of maize hybrids and one with only elite hybrids, were evaluated by comparing traditional rind penetration testing and the Integrated Puncture Score method to measurements of stalk bending strength. When evaluating the diverse set of hybrids, both methods were good predictors of stalk bending strength (R2 values of 0.67). However, when evaluating elite hybrids, the Integrated Puncture Score had an R2 value of 0.74 whereas the traditional method had an R2 value of 0.48. Additionally, the Integrated Puncture Score was able to differentiate between the strongest and weakest hybrids in the elite hybrid data set whereas the traditional rind penetration method was not. Additional experiments revealed strong evidence in favor of the data aggregation steps utilized to compute the Integrated Puncture Score. This study presents a new method for evaluating rind penetration resistance that highly correlates with stalk bending strength and can possibly be used as a breeding index for assessing stalk lodging resistance. This research lays the foundation required to develop a field-based high-throughput phenotyping device for stalk lodging resistance.

中文翻译：

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综合穿刺评分：力位移加权外皮穿透测试改进了玉米茎秆抗倒伏性的估计。

茎倒伏（在收获前破坏农业植物茎）是一个每年数十亿美元的问题。近一百年来，植物科学家和育种者一直使用外皮穿透抗性测试来估计玉米的茎秆抗倒伏性。然而，外皮穿刺法有两个主要限制：（1）在测量精英或商业前杂交种时，测试的预测能力显着降低，（2）使用外皮穿透测量作为育种指标不一定会产生更强的茎。在这项研究中，我们提出了一种称为综合穿刺评分的新果皮穿透方法，该方法使用改进的果皮穿透测试协议和基于物理的模型来提供茎秆抗倒伏性的稳健测量。两个数据集，通过将传统的外皮穿透测试和综合穿刺评分方法与茎弯曲强度的测量值进行比较，对一种具有多种玉米杂交种和一种仅具有优良杂交种的一种进行了评估。在评估各种杂种时，这两种方法都很好地预测了茎的弯曲强度（R2 值为 0.67）。然而，在评估精英杂交种时，综合穿刺评分的 R2 值为 0.74，而传统方法的 R2 值为 0.48。此外，综合穿刺评分能够区分精英杂交数据集中最强和最弱的杂交种，而传统的外皮穿透方法则不能。其他实验揭示了支持用于计算综合穿刺分数的数据聚合步骤的有力证据。本研究提出了一种评估果皮抗穿透性的新方法，该方法与茎的弯曲强度高度相关，可作为评估茎抗倒伏性的育种指标。这项研究为开发一种基于田间的高通量表型分析装置来抗茎倒伏奠定了基础。