3D Visualization and Volume-Based Quantification of Rice Chalkiness In Vivo by Using High Resolution Micro-CT

BACKGROUND: Rice quality research attracts attention worldwide. Rice chalkiness is one of the key indexes determining rice kernel quality. The traditional rice chalkiness measurement methods only use milled rice as materials and are mainly based on naked-eye observation or area-based two-dimensional (2D) image analysis and the results could not represent the three-dimensional (3D) characteristics of chalkiness in the rice kernel. These methods are neither in vivo thus are unable to analyze living rice seeds for high throughput screening of rice chalkiness phenotype. RESULTS: Here, we introduced a novel method for 3D visualization and accurate volume-based quantification of rice chalkiness in vivo by using X-ray microcomputed tomography (micro-CT). This approach not only develops a novel volume-based method to measure the 3D rice chalkiness index, but also provides a high throughput solution for rice chalkiness phenotype analysis by using living rice seeds. CONCLUSIONS: Our method could be a new powerful tool for rice chalkiness measurement, especially for high throughput chalkiness phenotype screening using living rice seeds. This method could be used in chalkiness phenotype identification and screening, and would greatly promote the basic research in rice chalkiness regulation as well as the quality evaluation in rice production practice.