scholarly journals Identification of superior parental lines for biparental crossing via genomic prediction

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0243159
Author(s):  
Ping-Yuan Chung ◽  
Chen-Tuo Liao

A parental selection approach based on genomic prediction has been developed to help plant breeders identify a set of superior parental lines from a candidate population before conducting field trials. A classical parental selection approach based on genomic prediction usually involves truncation selection, i.e., selecting the top fraction of accessions on the basis of their genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs). However, truncation selection inevitably results in the loss of genomic diversity during the breeding process. To preserve genomic diversity, the selection of closely related accessions should be avoided during parental selection. We thus propose a new index to quantify the genomic diversity for a set of candidate accessions, and analyze two real rice (Oryza sativa L.) genome datasets to compare several selection strategies. Our results showed that the pure truncation selection strategy produced the best starting breeding value but the least genomic diversity in the base population, leading to less genetic gain. On the other hand, strategies that considered only genomic diversity resulted in greater genomic diversity but less favorable starting breeding values, leading to more genetic gain but unsatisfactorily performing recombination inbred lines (RILs) in progeny populations. Among all strategies investigated in this study, compromised strategies, which considered both GEBVs and genomic diversity, produced the best or second-best performing RILs mainly because these strategies balance the starting breeding value with the maintenance of genomic diversity.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ping-Yuan Chung ◽  
Chen-Tuo Liao

Abstract Background A set of superior parental lines is the key to high-performing recombinant inbred lines (RILs) for biparental crossing in a rice breeding program. The number of possible crosses in such a breeding program is often far greater than the number that breeders can handle in the field. A practical parental selection method via genomic prediction (GP) is therefore developed to help breeders identify a set of superior parental lines from a candidate population before field trials. Results The parental selection via GP often involves truncation selection, selecting the top fraction of accessions based on their genomic estimated breeding values (GEBVs). However, the truncation selection inevitably causes a loss of genomic diversity in the breeding population. To preserve genomic variation, the selection of closely related accessions should be avoided. We first proposed a new index to quantify the genomic diversity for a set of candidate accessions. Then, we compared the performance of three classes of strategy for the parental selection, including those consider (a) GEBV only, (b) genomic diversity only, and (c) both GEBV and genomic diversity. We analyzed two rice (Oryza sativa L.) genome datasets for the comparison. The results show that the strategies considering both GEBV and genomic diversity have the best or second-best performance for all the traits analyzed in this study. Conclusion Combining GP with Monte Carlo simulation can be a useful means of parental selection for rice pre-breeding programs. Different strategies can be implemented to identify a set of superior parental lines from a candidate population. In consequence, the strategies considering both GEBV and genomic diversity that can balance the starting GEBV average with maintenance of genomic diversity should be recommended for practical use.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlee R. Labroo ◽  
Jessica E. Rutkoski

Background: Recurrent selection is a foundational breeding method for quantitative trait improvement. It typically features rapid breeding cycles that can lead to high rates of genetic gain. In recurrent phenotypic selection, generations do not overlap, which means that breeding candidates are evaluated and considered for selection for only one cycle. With recurrent genomic selection, candidates can be evaluated based on genomic estimated breeding values indefinitely, therefore facilitating overlapping generations. Candidates with true high breeding values that were discarded in one cycle due to underestimation of breeding value could be identified and selected in subsequent cycles. The consequences of allowing generations to overlap in recurrent selection are unknown. We assessed whether maintaining overlapping and discrete generations led to differences in genetic gain for phenotypic, genomic truncation, and genomic optimum contribution recurrent selection by simulation of traits with various heritabilities and genetic architectures across fifty breeding cycles. We also assessed differences of overlapping and discrete generations in a conventional breeding scheme with multiple stages and cohorts. Results: With phenotypic selection, overlapping generations led to decreased genetic gain compared to discrete generations due to increased selection error bias. Selected individuals, which were in the upper tail of the distribution of phenotypic values, tended to also have high absolute error relative to their true breeding value compared to the overall population. Without repeated phenotyping, these erroneously outlying individuals were repeatedly selected across cycles, leading to decreased genetic gain. With genomic truncation selection, overlapping and discrete generations performed similarly as updating breeding values precluded repeatedly selecting individuals with inaccurately high estimates of breeding values in subsequent cycles. Overlapping generations did not outperform discrete generations in the presence of a positive genetic trend with genomic truncation selection, as past generations had lower mean genetic values than the current generation of selection candidates. With genomic optimum contribution selection, overlapping and discrete generations performed similarly, but overlapping generations slightly outperformed discrete generations in the long term if the targeted inbreeding rate was extremely low. Conclusions: Maintaining discrete generations in recurrent phenotypic mass selection leads to increased genetic gain, especially at low heritabilities, by preventing selection error bias. With genomic truncation selection and genomic optimum contribution selection, genetic gain does not differ between discrete and overlapping generations assuming non-genetic effects are not present. Overlapping generations may increase genetic gain in the long term with very low targeted rates of inbreeding in genomic optimum contribution selection.


2004 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. AVENDAÑO ◽  
J. A. WOOLLIAMS ◽  
B. VILLANUEVA

Quadratic indices are a general approach for the joint management of genetic gain and inbreeding in artificial selection programmes. They provide the optimal contributions that selection candidates should have to obtain the maximum gain when the rate of inbreeding is constrained to a predefined value. This study shows that, when using quadratic indices, the selective advantage is a function of the Mendelian sampling terms. That is, at all times, contributions of selected candidates are allocated according to the best available information about their Mendelian sampling terms (i.e. about their superiority over their parental average) and not on their breeding values. By contrast, under standard truncation selection, both estimated breeding values and Mendelian sampling terms play a major role in determining contributions. A measure of the effectiveness of using genetic variation to achieve genetic gain is presented and benchmark values of 0·92 for quadratic optimisation and 0·5 for truncation selection are found for a rate of inbreeding of 0·01 and a heritability of 0·25.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan McKinnon Edwards ◽  
Jaap B. Buntjer ◽  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Alison R. Bentley ◽  
Jacob Lage ◽  
...  

AbstractGenomic selection offers several routes for increasing genetic gain or efficiency of plant breeding programs. In various species of livestock there is empirical evidence of increased rates of genetic gain from the use of genomic selection to target different aspects of the breeder’s equation. Accurate predictions of genomic breeding value are central to this and the design of training sets is in turn central to achieving sufficient levels of accuracy. In summary, small numbers of close relatives and very large numbers of distant relatives are expected to enable accurate predictions.To quantify the effect of some of the properties of training sets on the accuracy of genomic selection in crops we performed an extensive field-based winter wheat trial. In summary, this trial involved the construction of 44 F2:4 bi- and triparental populations, from which 2992 lines were grown on four field locations and yield was measured. For each line, genotype data were generated for 25,000 segregating single nucleotide polymorphism markers. The overall heritability of yield was estimated to 0.65, and estimates within individual families ranged between 0.10 and 0.85. Within cross genomic prediction accuracies of yield BLUEs were 0.125 – 0.127 using two different cross-validation approaches, and generally increased with training set size. Using related crosses in training and validation sets generally resulted in higher prediction accuracies than using unrelated crosses. The results of this study emphasize the importance of the training set design in relation to the genetic material to which the resulting prediction model is to be applied.


2012 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie Pryce ◽  
Ben Hayes

New genomic technologies can help farmers to (1) achieve higher annual rates of genetic gain through using genomically tested bulls in their herds, (2) select for ‘difficult’ to measure traits, such as feed conversion efficiency, methane emissions and energy balance, (3) select the best heifers to become herd replacements, (4) sell pedigree heifers at a premium, (5) use mating plans to optimise rates of genetic gain while controlling inbreeding, (6) achieve certainty in parentage of individual cows and (7) avoid genetic defects that could arise from mating cows to bulls that are known carriers of genetic diseases that are the result of a single lethal mutation. The first use does not require genotyping females and could approximately double the net income per cow that arises due to genetic improvement, mainly through a reduction in generation interval. On the basis of current rates of genetic gain, the net profit from using genotyped bulls could be worth AU$20/cow per year and is permanent and cumulative. One of the most powerful uses of genomic selection is to select for economically important, yet difficult- or expensive-to-measure traits, such as residual feed intake or energy balance. Provided the accuracy of genomic breeding values is high enough (i.e. correlation between the true and estimated breeding values), these traits lend themselves well to genomic selection. For selecting replacement heifers, if genotyping costs are AU$50/cow, the net profit of genotyping 40 heifers to select the top 20 as replacements (per 100 cows) would be worth approximately AU$41 per cow. However, using parent average estimated breeding-value information is free and can already be used to select replacement heifers. So, genotyping costs would need to be very low to be more profitable than selecting on parent average estimated breeding value. However, extra value from genotyping can also be captured by using other strategies. For example, mating plans that use genomic relationships rather than pedigree relationships to capture inbreeding are superior in terms of reducing progeny inbreeding at a desired level of genetic gain, although pedigree does an adequate job. So, again, the benefits of genotyping are small (<AU$10). Ascertainment of pedigree is an additional use of genotyping and is potentially worth ~AU$30 per cow. Avoidance of genetic diseases and selling of pedigree heifers have a value that should be estimated case-by-case. Because genotyping costs continue to fall, it may become increasingly popular to capture the extra value from genotyping females.


2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Line Hjortø ◽  
Mark Henryon ◽  
Huiming Liu ◽  
Peer Berg ◽  
Jørn Rind Thomasen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background We tested the hypothesis that breeding schemes with a pre-selection step, in which carriers of a lethal recessive allele (LRA) were culled, and with optimum-contribution selection (OCS) reduce the frequency of a LRA, control rate of inbreeding, and realise as much genetic gain as breeding schemes without a pre-selection step. Methods We used stochastic simulation to estimate true genetic gain realised at a 0.01 rate of true inbreeding (ΔFtrue) by breeding schemes that combined one of four pre-selection strategies with one of three selection strategies. The four pre-selection strategies were: (1) no carriers culled, (2) male carriers culled, (3) female carriers culled, and (4) all carriers culled. Carrier-status was known prior to selection. The three selection strategies were: (1) OCS in which $$\Delta {\text{F}}_{{{\text{true}}}}$$ Δ F true was predicted and controlled using pedigree relationships (POCS), (2) OCS in which $$\Delta {\text{F}}_{{{\text{true}}}}$$ Δ F true was predicted and controlled using genomic relationships (GOCS), and (3) truncation selection of parents. All combinations of pre-selection strategies and selection strategies were tested for three starting frequencies of the LRA (0.05, 0.10, and 0.15) and two linkage statuses with the locus that has the LRA being on a chromosome with or without loci affecting the breeding goal trait. The breeding schemes were simulated for 10 discrete generations (t = 1, …, 10). In all breeding schemes, ΔFtrue was calibrated to be 0.01 per generation in generations t = 4, …, 10. Each breeding scheme was replicated 100 times. Results We found no significant difference in true genetic gain from generations t = 4, …, 10 between breeding schemes with or without pre-selection within selection strategy. POCS and GOCS schemes realised similar true genetic gains from generations t = 4, …, 10. POCS and GOCS schemes realised 12% more true genetic gain from generations t = 4, …, 10 than truncation selection schemes. Conclusions We advocate for OCS schemes with pre-selection against the LRA that cause animal suffering and high costs. At LRA frequencies of 0.10 or lower, OCS schemes in which male carriers are culled reduce the frequency of LRA, control rate of inbreeding, and realise no significant reduction in true genetic gain compared to OCS schemes without pre-selection against LRA.


Author(s):  
Christian R. Werner ◽  
R. Chris Gaynor ◽  
Daniel J. Sargent ◽  
Alessandra Lillo ◽  
Gregor Gorjanc ◽  
...  

AbstractFor genomic selection in clonal breeding programs to be effective, crossing parents should be selected based on genomic predicted cross performance unless dominance is negligible. Genomic prediction of cross performance enables a balanced exploitation of the additive and dominance value simultaneously. Here, we compared different strategies for the implementation of genomic selection in clonal plant breeding programs. We used stochastic simulations to evaluate six combinations of three breeding programs and two parent selection methods. The three breeding programs included i) a breeding program that introduced genomic selection in the first clonal testing stage, and ii) two variations of a two-part breeding program with one and three crossing cycles per year, respectively. The two parent selection methods were i) selection of parents based on genomic estimated breeding values, and ii) selection of parents based on genomic predicted cross performance. Selection of parents based on genomic predicted cross performance produced faster genetic gain than selection of parents based on genomic estimated breeding values because it substantially reduced inbreeding when the dominance degree increased. The two-part breeding programs with one and three crossing cycles per year using genomic prediction of cross performance always produced the most genetic gain unless dominance was negligible. We conclude that i) in clonal breeding programs with genomic selection, parents should be selected based on genomic predicted cross performance, and ii) a two-part breeding program with parent selection based on genomic predicted cross performance to rapidly drive population improvement has great potential to improve breeding clonally propagated crops.


2020 ◽  
Vol 98 (Supplement_4) ◽  
pp. 10-10
Author(s):  
Siavash Salek Ardestani ◽  
Mohsen Jafarikia ◽  
Brian Sullivan ◽  
Mehdi Sargolzaei ◽  
Younes Miar

Abstract Increasing the accuracy of breeding value prediction can lead to more profitability through accelerating genetic progress for economic traits. The objective of this study was to assess the predictive abilities and unbiasedness of best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) and popular genomic prediction methods of BayesC, BayesC(π = 0.99), genomic BLUP (GBLUP), and single-step GBLUP (ssGBLUP). Genotypic information (50K and 60K) of 4,890 performance tested Landrace pigs before February 2019 and 471 validation Landrace pigs that both had phenotypic information on backfat thickness (BFT), average daily gain (ADG), and loin muscle depth (LMD) from two Canadian pig breeding companies (AlphaGene and Alliance Genetics Canada) were used. The de-regressed breeding values (DEBV) were employed in GBLUP and Bayesian methods. A total number of 48,580 single nucleotide polymorphisms remained after quality control and imputation steps. The prediction accuracies were calculated using the correlation between predicted breeding values before performance test and DEBVs after performance test. All employed genomic prediction methods showed higher prediction accuracies for BFT (50.80–52.68%), ADG (26.61–34.47%), and LMD (18.25–25.08%) compared to BLUP method (BFT = 28.54%, ADG = 16.41%, LMD = 17.15%). The highest prediction accuracies for BFT and ADG were obtained using ssGBLUP method, and for LMD it was obtained using BayesC(π = 0.99). The BayesC(π = 0.99) showed also the lowest prediction biases across the studied traits (+0.05 for BFT, 0.00 for AGD, and -0.10 for LMD). In conclusion, our results revealed the superiority of ssGBLUP (for BFT and ADG) and BayesC(π = 0.99) (for LMD) over other tested methods in this study. However, the prediction accuracies from the tested genomic prediction methods were not significantly different from each other. Thus, employing these methods can be helpful for accelerating the genetic improvement of BFT, ADG, and LMD in the moderate population size of Canadian Landrace.


2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (10) ◽  
pp. 2036-2043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Xiang ◽  
Bailian Li

Full-sib progeny tests with clonal replicates may provide better breeding value estimates and the greatest genetic gain in a tree improvement program. Clonal breeding values (CBV) that combine the family and within-family breeding values due to additive genetic effects can maximize the genetic gain for advanced generation breeding. Clonal genetic values (CGV) that further incorporate full-sib family specific combining ability due to nonadditive genetic effect can maximize gain for a deployment program with clonal propagation techniques. The best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) is the best statistical method for estimating both CBV and CGV because of its desirable statistical properties compared with the heritability-based gain calculation. A BLUP method for determining both the CBV and CGV for full-sib clonal progeny tests was proposed in this paper. The formulas for CBV and CGV were derived using general BLUP methodology, and formulas were derived for the calculations of their standard errors. An analytical method by using a standard statistical package (SAS PROC MIXED) was presented for CBV and CGV calculations from any full-sib mating designs.


Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 803
Author(s):  
Enrico Mancin ◽  
Bolívar Samuel Sosa-Madrid ◽  
Agustín Blasco ◽  
Noelia Ibáñez-Escriche

Genomic selection uses genetic marker information to predict genomic breeding values (gEBVs), and can be a suitable tool for selecting low-hereditability traits such as litter size in rabbits. However, genotyping costs in rabbits are still too high to enable genomic prediction in selective breeding programs. One method for decreasing genotyping costs is the genotype imputation, where parents are genotyped at high SNP-density (HD) and the progeny are genotyped at lower SNP-density, followed by imputation to HD. The aim of this study was to disentangle the best imputation strategies with a trade-off between genotyping costs and the accuracy of breeding values for litter size. A selection process, mimicking a commercial breeding rabbit selection program for litter size, was simulated. Two different Quantitative Trait Nucleotide (QTN) models (QTN_5 and QTN_44) were generated 36 times each. From these simulations, seven different scenarios (S1–S7) and a further replicate of the third scenario (S3_A) were created. Scenarios consist of a different combination of genotyping strategies. In these scenarios, ancestors and progeny were genotyped with a mix of three different platforms, containing 200,000, 60,000, and 600 SNPs under a cost of EUR 100, 50 and 11 per animal, respectively. Imputation accuracy (IA) was measured as a Pearson’s correlation between true genotype and imputed genotype, whilst the accuracy of gEBVs was the correlation between true breeding value and the estimated one. The relationships between IA, the accuracy of gEBVs, genotyping costs, and response to selection were examined under each QTN model. QTN_44 presented better performance, according to the results of genomic prediction, but the same ranks between scenarios remained in both QTN models. The highest IA (0.99) and the accuracy of gEBVs (0.26; QTN_44, and 0.228; QTN_5) were observed in S1 where all ancestors were genotyped at HD and progeny at medium SNP-density (MD). Nevertheless, this was the most expensive scenario compared to the others in which the progenies were genotyped at low SNP-density (LD). Scenarios with low average costs presented low IA, particularly when female ancestors were genotyped at LD (S5) or non-genotyped (S7). The S3_A, imputing whole-genomes, had the lowest accuracy of gEBVs (0.09), even worse than Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (BLUP). The best trade-off between genotyping costs and the accuracy of gEBVs (0.234; QTN_44 and 0.199) was in S6, in which dams were genotyped with MD whilst grand-dams were non-genotyped. However, this relationship would depend mainly on the distribution of QTN and SNP across the genome, suggesting further studies on the characterization of the rabbit genome in the Spanish lines. In summary, genomic selection with genotype imputation is feasible in the rabbit industry, considering only genotyping strategies with suitable IA, accuracy of gEBVs, genotyping costs, and response to selection.


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