Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2019
Abstract
The purpose of breeding programs is to obtain sustainable gains in multiple traits while controlling the loss of genetic variation. The decisions at each breeding cycle involve multiple, usually competing, objectives; these complex decisions can be supported by the insights that are gained by applying multi-objective optimization principles to breeding. The discussion in this manuscript includes the definition of several multi-objective optimized breeding approaches within the phenotypic or genomic breeding frameworks and the comparison of these approaches with the standard multi-trait breeding schemes such as tandem selection, independent culling and index selection. Proposed methods are demonstrated with two empirical data sets and simulations. In addition, we have described several graphical tools that can aid breeders in arriving at a compromise decision. The results show that the proposed methodology is a viable approach to answer several real breeding problems. In simulations, the newly proposed methods resulted in gains larger than the methods previously proposed including index selection: Compared to the best alternative breeding strategy, the gains from multi-objective optimized parental proportions approaches were about 20–30% higher at the end of long-term simulations of breeding cycles. In addition, the flexibility of the multi-objective optimized breeding strategies were displayed with methods and examples covering non-dominated selection, assignment of optimal parental proportions, using genomewide marker effects in producing optimal mating designs, and finally in selection of training populations for genomic prediction.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Heredity
First Page
672
Last Page
683
Recommended Citation
Akdemir, D., Beavis, W., Fritsche-Neto, R., Singh, A., & Isidro-Sánchez, J. (2019). Multi-objective optimized genomic breeding strategies for sustainable food improvement. Heredity, 122 (5), 672-683. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41437-018-0147-1