Utilization Strategies of Two Environment Phenotypes in Genomic Prediction

Multiple environment phenotypes may be utilized to implement genomic prediction in plant breeding, while it is unclear about optimal utilization strategies according to its different availability. It is necessary to assess the utilization strategies of genomic prediction models based on different availability of multiple environment phenotypes. Here, we compared the prediction accuracy of three genomic prediction models (genomic prediction model (genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GFBLUP), and multi-trait genomic best linear unbiased prediction (mtGBLUP)) which leveraged diverse information from multiple environment phenotypes using a rice dataset containing 19 agronomic traits in two disparate seasons. We found that the prediction accuracy of genomic prediction models considering multiple environment phenotypes (GFBLUP and mtGBLUP) was better than the classical genomic prediction model (GBLUP model). The deviation of prediction accuracy of between GBLUP and mtGBLUP or GFBLUP was associated with the phenotypic correlation. In summary, the genomic prediction models considering multiple environment phenotypes (GFBLUP and mtGBLUP) demonstrated better prediction accuracy. In addition, we could utilize different genomic prediction strategies according to different availability of multiple environment phenotypes.