Genomics Assisted Approaches for Improving Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Forage Grasses

Characteristics of Various Types of Plant Breeding

“…Without prior knowledge of relevant QTLs or other molecular markers [69], GS uses dense single SNPs distributed across the whole genome to estimate the genetic merit of individuals of a breeding population and to facilitate the selection of candidates for the next breeding cycle [24, 69,70]. GS shows great potential for resolving the issue of selection of traits associated with multiple genes [71] because it can theoretically account for the effect, no matter how small, of every piece of genetic information -gene or otherwise -from a genome [72], for which conventional selection and MAS are difficult and time-consuming to apply [71]. Therefore, GS ensures high accuracy and allows for a substantial reduction in the duration of the breeding cycle, while also decreasing the costs associated with extensive phenotyping, and thus accelerating genetic gains and improving the overall efficiency of the breeding process [60,73].…”

“…The possibility of analyzing individuals through whole genome sequencing has turned GS and other genomics-assisted breeding (GAB) tools into powerful assets [3,60,72], which enable the integration of genomics with conventional phenotyping in order to facilitate the prediction of phenotype from genotype [3,60]. In this context, the breeder can make a comprehensive characterization of the genetic variation in order to find the best allelesthat is.…”

“…In this regard, the selection of individuals in subsequent generations is based purely on GEBVs. This general outline of the genomic selection process is based on information published by [11,24,59,60,70,72,73].…”

“…However, there are certain factors that may influence the accuracy of the genomic prediction: the size and genetic diversity of the training and breeding populations, as well as the genetic relationship between the two, the heritability of the target trait, the influence of the environment on the initial population, the density of markers, the choice of statistical models used to estimate breeding values, and the accuracy of the phenotyping [24, 69,72].…”

“…In conclusion, there is great potential in GS and GAB, and overcoming the limitations these technologies are currently facing will make their routine implementation possible in plant breeding [24,72,74], which might lead to replacing phenotypic selection and MAS, at least in the analysis of complex traits [59].…”