Frontline remote sensing tool to locate hidden traits in root and tuber crops

Root and tuber crops(RTCs)play an important role in alleviating poverty,improving health and nutrition,and providing excellent opportunities for improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in countries like sub-Saharan Africa.Starch roots and tubers are edible starch materials that are stored in the subterranean stems,roots(cassava and sweet potatoes),rhizomes(canna and arrow roots),corms(taros and cocoyams),and tubers(potatoes and yams)(Chandrasekara and Kumar,2016).RTCs are second in importance to cereal crops in terms of calories,food security,and industrial purposes.Therefore,it is apparent that understanding the role of root system architecture in RTCs for resource mobilization is a vital step in building the foundation for next-generation crops.In cereal crops,the advancement in high-throughput phenotyping seems to lead the way in breeding and selecting traits for climate resistance,improved yield,and quality.Yet,in RTCs,there is no suitable model system to monitor storage root formation and bulking growth patterns underlying the development of improved traits,which leave behind the response to the next green revolution.Therefore,we discuss the current and future directions of high-throughput phenotyping methods for RTCs with Cassava as a case study for locating the hidden traits.