Recurrent genomic selection for wheat grain fructans

Abstract

Fructans are carbohydrates found in many plants, including wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), and they serve physiological roles in both plants and humans. Genomic selection (GS) could facilitate the rapid development of climate-resilient, nutritionally improved wheat cultivars, such as high-fructan cultivars, while decreasing resourceintensive phenotyping requirements. However, few empirical studies have examined GS for nutritional quality breeding. Although GS can accelerate gain from selection, loss of genetic variation and inbreeding may limit the potential for long-term gain. The objectives of this study were (a) to determine realized gain from GS for wheat grain fructan content with simple truncated selection (TS) and optimized contribution selection (OCS) methods, (b) to determine if gains agree with theoretical expectations, and (c) to compare impacts of selection on inbreeding, genetic variance, and indirect selection on agronomic characteristics. Over 2 yr, two cycles of GS were performed with equal contribution TS and inbreeding-constrained OCS selection. Genomic selection with TS and OCS led to a 25 ± 12% and 34 ± 6.4% increase in wheat grain fructan content, respectively. Although positive gains from selection were observed for both populations, OCS populations exhibited these gains while simultaneously retaining greater genetic variance and lower inbreeding levels relative to TS populations.Selection for wheat grain fructan content did not change plant height but significantly decreased days to heading in OCS populations. In this study, GS effectively improved the nutritional quality of wheat, and OCS controlled the rate of inbreeding.

Gain from genomic selection for a selection index in two‐row spring barley

“…Two cycles of GS led to a substantial increase in average marker-based relationship compared with a single cycle of phenotypic selection, similar to results in Rutkoski et al (2015) and Veenstra et al (2020). Inbreeding in C2G was higher than expected based on pedigree.…”

Designing Future Crops: Genomics-Assisted Breeding Comes of Age

“…Also, GS imparts greater accuracy and rapidity to selection procedures in 'evolving gene banks' even in the absence of pedigree records. When applied with GS, OCS and truncation selection (TS) have shown comparable gains for grain fructan content in wheat, however, OCS retained higher genetic variance and lower inbreeding levels in comparison with TS [159].…”

Prospects for Molecular Breeding in Cotton,Gossypiumspp

“…Based on these marker effect estimates, genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs) of different individuals/lines will be calculated without actually phenotyping them, which forms the basis of selection (Figure 7). GS empirical studies in maize (Zea mays; [132][133][134][135]), rice (Oryza sativa; [136][137][138][139]), wheat (Triticum aestivum; [140][141][142][143][144]), and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor; [145][146][147]) have all recently shown how GS has become an efficient approach in crop breeding with recent developments in the implementation of various high-density array-based DNA marker technologies and their reduced genotyping costs. There are many marker effects estimation models that have been developed for the GS.…”