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The incorporation of new sophisticated phenotyping technologies within a crop improvement program allows for a plant breeding strategy that can include selections for major root traits previously inaccessible due to the challenges in their phenotype assessment. High‐throughput precision phenotyping technology is employed to evaluate root ontogeny and progressive changes to root architecture of both novel amphiploid and introgression lines of Festulolium over four consecutive months of the growing season and these compared under the same time frame to that of closely related perennial ryegrass (L. perenne) varieties. Root imaging using conventional photography and assembled multiple merged images was used to compare frequencies in root number, their distribution within 0–20 and 20–40 cm depths within soil columns, and progressive changes over time. The Festulolium hybrids had more extensive root systems in comparison with L. perenne, and this was especially evident at depth. It was shown that the acquisition of extensive root systems in Festulolium hybrids was not dependent on the presence of an entire Festuca genome. On the contrary, the most pronounced effect on root development within the four Festulolium populations studied was observed in the introgression line Bx509, where a single small genome sequence from F. arundinacea had been previously transferred onto its homoeologous site on the long arm of chromosome 3 of an otherwise complete L. perenne genome. This demonstrates that a targeted introgression‐breeding approach may be sufficient to confer a significant improvement in the root morphology in Lolium without a significant compromise to its genome integrity. The forage production of Bx509 was either higher (months 1–3) or equivalent to (month 4) that of its L. perenne parent control demonstrating that the enhanced root development achieved by the introgression line was without compromise to its agronomic performance.

© 2015 Kole, Muthamilarasan, Henry, Edwards, Sharma, Abberton, Batley, Bentley, Blakeney, Bryant, Cai, Cakir, Cseke, Cockram, de Oliveira, De Pace, Dempewolf, Ellison, Gepts, Greenland, Hall, Hori, Hughes, Humphreys, Iorizzo, Ismail, Marshall, Mayes, Nguyen, Ogbonnaya, Ortiz, Paterson, Simon, Tohme, Tuberosa, Valliyodan, Varshney, Wullschleger, Yano and Prasad. Climate change affects agricultural productivity worldwide. Increased prices of food commodities are the initial indication of drastic edible yield loss, which is expected to increase further due to global warming. This situation has compelled plant scientists to develop climate change-resilient crops, which can withstand broad-spectrum stresses such as drought, heat, cold, salinity, flood, submergence and pests, thus helping to deliver increased productivity. Genomics appears to be a promising tool for deciphering the stress responsiveness of crop species with adaptation traits or in wild relatives toward identifying underlying genes, alleles or quantitative trait loci. Molecular breeding approaches have proven helpful in enhancing the stress adaptation of crop plants, and recent advances in high-throughput sequencing and phenotyping platforms have transformed molecular breeding to genomics-assisted breeding (GAB). In view of this, the present review elaborates the progress and prospects of GAB for improving climate change resilience in crops, which is likely to play an ever increasing role in the effort to ensure global food security.