Climate change threatens global Chinese cabbage ( Brassica rapa L. ssp. pekinensis ) production, a cool-season crop essential for Asian markets. With optimal growth at 18-20°C and severe disruption above 25°C, developing heat-resilient varieties is critical. This study integrated high-throughput 3D multispectral phenotyping with multivariate analysis to characterize temporal heat stress responses in 18 Chinese cabbage genotypes. Seedlings were subjected to heat stress (setpoint 40/35°C day/night; measured 35.7/31.5°C day/night air temperature) or controls (setpoint 25/20°C day/night; measured 25.0/17.7°C day/night air temperature) for 14 days, with continuous non-destructive monitoring of 14 morphological and spectral parameters using PlantEye F600 multispectral 3D scanner. Principal component analysis of temporal phenotyping data explained 62-68% of variance, enabling quantitative assessment of phenotypic stability through Euclidean distance measurements in PC space. Temporal analysis revealed crop-specific response patterns with maximum treatment separation at 3 days after treatment (DAT) (ΔC=3.27), reflecting Chinese cabbage’s rapid heat sensitivity as a cool-season crop, followed by progressive acclimation by 14 DAT (ΔC=1.41). Early responses (3-5 DAT) were dominated by morphological parameters, transitioning to physiological adjustments (10-14 DAT) characterized by spectral indices. Under heat stress, plants prioritized evaporative cooling through increased transpiration (four-fold increase) over carbon assimilation. A critical finding was the disproportionately greater reduction in root biomass relative to shoot biomass under to heat stress, with root biomass declining 38-47% versus 20% in shoots. Strong correlations (r>0.8) between 3D imaging parameters and destructive biomass measurements validated the non-destructive approach’s reliability. Notably, image-based root surface area analysis correlated strongly with actual root biomass (R 2 =0.698, p<0.001), enabling practical assessment of root area without conventional destructive processing. Based on integration of phenotypic stability (Euclidean distances in PC space) and biomass production under heat stress, this approach identified four distinct heat tolerance strategies: stable-productive genotypes (ideal breeding targets combining phenotypic stability with high heat-stress biomass production), stable-conservative genotypes (phenotypic stability with lower production), plastic-productive genotypes (substantial phenotypic changes yet high biomass production), and plastic-sensitive genotypes (phenotypically unstable and poor biomass production). This validated framework accelerates heat-tolerant Chinese cabbage breeding through efficient high-throughput phenotyping, enabling targeted genotype selection for diverse production environments facing climate warming.
Jang et al. (2026) studied this question.