Accelerating forest tree breeding by integrating genomic selection and greenhouse phenotyping

Area of Science:

• Forestry
• Plant Breeding
• Genetics

Background:

• Forest tree breeding is slow and expensive due to long field trial durations and delayed phenotype measurement.
• Genomic selection (GS) and indirect selection using early phenotypes offer potential to accelerate breeding.
• These methods can reduce costs and speed up selection decisions in tree improvement programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of integrating large-scale greenhouse phenotyping with conventional genomic selection (GS).
• To assess the potential for accelerating selection gains in Populus deltoides (eastern cottonwood).

Main Methods:

• Utilized a dataset of DNA genotypes and longitudinal growth measurements from Populus deltoides.
• Collected phenotype data in both greenhouse and field conditions.
• Integrated greenhouse phenotyping data with GS models.

Main Results:

• The integration of greenhouse phenotyping and GS allows for very early selection decisions.
• These early selection decisions demonstrated moderate accuracy.
• Synergistic effects were observed between the two approaches.

Conclusions:

• Combining greenhouse phenotyping with GS can significantly accelerate selection gains in eastern cottonwood.
• This integrated approach has the potential to revolutionize breeding for other commercially important tree species.
• Adoption of these methods, alongside techniques to shorten generation intervals, offers unprecedented gains.