The value of early-stage phenotyping for wheat breeding in the age of genomic selection.

The value of early-stage phenotyping for wheat breeding in the age of genomic selection. Theor Appl Genet. 2020 Jun 01;: Authors: Borrenpohl D, Huang M, Olson E, Sneller C Abstract KEY MESSAGE: Genomic selection using data from an on-going breeding program can improve gain from selection, relative to phenotypic selection, by significantly increasing the number of lines that can be evaluated. The early stages of phenotyping involve few observations and can be quite inaccurate. Genomic selection (GS) could improve selection accuracy and alter resource allocation. Our objectives were (1) to compare the prediction accuracy of GS and phenotyping in stage-1 and stage-2 field evaluations and (2) to assess the value of stage-1 phenotyping for advancing lines to stage-2 testing. We built training populations from 1769 wheat breeding lines that were genotyped and phenotyped for yield, test weight, Fusarium head blight resistance, heading date, and height. The lines were in cohorts, and analyses were done by cohort. Phenotypes or GS estimated breeding values were used to determine the trait value of stage-1 lines, and these values were correlated with their phenotypes from stage-2 trials. This was repeated for stage-2 to stage-3 trials. The prediction accuracy of GS and phenotypes was similar to each other regardless of the amount (0, 50, 100%) of stage-1 data incorporated in the GS model. Ranking of stage-1 lines by GS predictions that used no...
Source: TAG. Theoretical and Applied Genetics - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Theor Appl Genet Source Type: research