Performance of neural networks for prediction of asparagine content in wheat grain from imaging data

ABSTRACT Background The prediction of desirable traits in wheat from imaging data is an area of growing interest thanks to the increasing accessibility of remote sensing technology. However, as the amount of data generated continues to grow, it is important that the most appropriate models are used to make sense of this information. Here, the performance of neural network models in predicting grain asparagine content is assessed against the performance of other models. Results Neural networks had greater accuracies than partial least squares regression models and gaussian naïve Bayes models for prediction of grain asparagine content, yield, genotype, and fertiliser treatment. Genotype was also more accurately predicted from seed data than from canopy data. Conclusion Using wheat canopy spectral data and combinations of wheat seed morphology and spectral data, neural networks can provide improved accuracies over other models for the prediction of agronomically important traits.