iScience (Jan 2021)

Machine learning in plant science and plant breeding

  • Aalt Dirk Jan van Dijk,
  • Gert Kootstra,
  • Willem Kruijer,
  • Dick de Ridder

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 24, no. 1
p. 101890

Abstract

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Summary: Technological developments have revolutionized measurements on plant genotypes and phenotypes, leading to routine production of large, complex data sets. This has led to increased efforts to extract meaning from these measurements and to integrate various data sets. Concurrently, machine learning has rapidly evolved and is now widely applied in science in general and in plant genotyping and phenotyping in particular. Here, we review the application of machine learning in the context of plant science and plant breeding. We focus on analyses at different phenotype levels, from biochemical to yield, and in connecting genotypes to these. In this way, we illustrate how machine learning offers a suite of methods that enable researchers to find meaningful patterns in relevant plant data.

Keywords