Omics-driven plant breeding through phenomics-enviromics crosstalk
Genomics, including all molecular omics, is driven by molecular data, while phenomics and enviromics rely on phenotypic and environmental data. Yet phenotyping is often conducted under poorly characterized environments, limiting the interpretation of phenotypic variation and constraining genetic gain. Integrating high-throughput phenotyping with envirotyping is hence vital to resolve genomic effects. This perspective introduces phenomics-enviromics (PE) crosstalk as a framework for coordinated data collection and integration to advance omics and precision plant breeding. Satellites, unmanned aerial and ground vehicles, and controlled indoor facilities, combined with AI-assisted typing technologies and modeling, are establishing the basis for synchronous, high-throughput PE crosstalk to enhance interpretability, prediction, and crop resilience. Genomics, phenomics, and enviromics constitute the G–P–E triangle in plant breeding, yet enviromics and its interaction with phenomics remain underexplored. Here, the authors introduce phenomics–enviromics (PE) crosstalk and discuss its coordinated data-collection and -integration into next-generation plant breeding.
Authors
- Matthew Reynolds (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4291-4316)
- Yunbi Xu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3361-4650)
- Jiankang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8069-5329)
- J. L. Araus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8866-2388)
- Takele Weldu Gebrewahid (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8468-0255)
- Huihui Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9117-5011)
- Wenxue Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0346-5300)
- Zanping Han
- Sarah Hearne
- Shang Gao
Institutions
- BGI Group (China) (CN)
- Universitat de Lleida (ES)
- Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz Y Trigo (MX)
- Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Wuhu Hit Robot Technology Research Institute (CN)
- Sanya University (CN)
- Institute of Crop Sciences (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2026-06-12
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73097-x
- Primary Topic
- Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
- Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program