UAV-based LiDAR technology facilitates high-throughput phenotyping in maize breeding trials
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 22-Oct-2026 12:17 ET (22-Oct-2026 16:17 GMT/UTC)
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) light detection and ranging (LiDAR) was used for high throughput maize plant height phenotyping in 270 doubled haploid (DH) lines across multiple stages and environments. Single plant scale estimation outperformed row scale, with R² values of 0.67 vs. 0.56 and RMSE values of 0.12 m vs. 0.17 m, respectively. Using inclusive composite interval mapping, we identified 12 and 20 QTLs for plant height in two DH populations. These results support the feasibility of UAV-based QTL mapping and candidate gene discovery in maize.
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