Economic Importance, Breeding Objectives and Achievements

Accuracy of genomic selection models in a large population of open-pollinated families in white spruce

“…To our knowledge, this is the first experimental study presenting estimates of predictive ability and accuracy of GS models for wood and growth traits in spruces for a population of large effective size representative of first-generation breeding populations, as often used in boreal conifer improvement programmes (Mullin et al, 2011). The number of parents that contributed to generating the 1694 white spruce trees of our study was estimated to be 620, using the status effective number (Ns) defined as Ns ¼ 0.5/f (Lindgren and Mullin, 1998) where the group's coancestry coefficient (f) is half of the relatedness coefficient derived from numerator the relationship matrix among all 1694 offspring.…”

“…However, despite some promising results from experimental studies at the genome scale in forest trees (Resende et al, 2012a, b), further investigation is still needed to bring marker-assisted selection to the operational level. This is especially true in forestry, where tree breeding programmes are frequently dealing with species with long breeding cycles involving essentially undomesticated populations and where large population sizes are often considered for the maintenance of high genetic diversity in reforestation stocks (Mullin et al, 2011;Namroud et al, 2012).…”

“…However, no attempt has been made to estimate the value of GS for populations with large effective size, such as for undomesticated tree populations or for commonly used first-generation breeding populations of boreal conifer species (Mullin et al, 2011). Conifer breeders generally assemble large breeding populations of several hundred individuals in order to maintain a high level of genetic diversity for long-term adaptive capacity.…”

Insights into Conifer Giga-Genomes

“…Loblolly pine dominates commercial forestry in the southeastern United States. White spruce, Norway spruce, and loblolly pine represent some of the most economically important conifers worldwide, and they are the subjects of important tree improvement/breeding programs (Mullin et al, 2011). This Update highlights significant insights obtained from these genomes as well as some ongoing challenges and recent developments in conifer genomics.…”

Ecological and association genetics in two Mediterranean pine species

“…The breeding of maritime pine began in the 1960s in south-western France, after several species and provenance trials had shown that the local ecotype was the best adapted and fastest growing tree in the Aquitaine soil and climatic conditions (Illy 1966;Harfourche 1995). This programme has now reached its third generation and is one of the most advanced conifer breeding programmes in the world (Mullin et al 2011).…”