TITLE:
Relationships between Microsclerotia Content and Hyperspectral Reflectance Data in Soybean Tissue Infected by Macrophomina phaseolina
AUTHORS:
Reginald S. Fletcher, James R. Smith, Alemu Mengistu, Jeffery D. Ray
KEYWORDS:
Hyperspectral, Stem-Root Tissue, Charcoal Rot, Macrophomina phaseolina, Soybeans
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.5 No.25,
December
17,
2014
ABSTRACT: Alternative methods are needed to assess the severity of charcoal rot disease [Macrophomina phaseolina (Tassi) Goid] in soybean [Glycine max (L.)] plant tissue. The objective of this study was to define the relationship between light reflectance properties and microsclerotia content of soybean stem and root tissue. Understanding that relationship could lead to using spectral reflectance data as a tool to assess the severity of charcoal rot disease in soybean plants, thus reducing human bias associated with qualitative analysis of soybean plant tissue and cost and time issues connected with quantitative analysis. Hyperspectral reflectance measurements (400-2490 nm) were obtained with a non-imaging spectroradiometer of non-diseased and charcoal rot diseased ground stem and root tissue samples of six soybean genotypes (“Clark”, “LD00-3309”, “LG03- 4561-14”, “LG03-4561-19”, “Saline”, and “Y227-1”). Relationships between the reflectance measurements and tissue microsclerotia content were evaluated with Spearman correlation (rs) analysis (p