Genomic selection for resistance to spruce budworm in white spruce and relationships with growth and wood quality traits.

ABSTRACT: With climate change, the pressure on tree breeding to provide varieties with improved resilience to biotic and abiotic stress is increasing. As such, pest resistance is of high priority but has been neglected in most tree breeding programs, given the complexity of phenotyping for these traits and delays to assess mature trees. In addition, the existing genetic variation of resistance and its relationship with productivity should be better understood for their consideration in multitrait breeding. In this study, we evaluated the prospects for genetic improvement of the levels of acetophenone aglycones (AAs) in white spruce needles, which have been shown to be tightly linked to resistance to spruce budworm. Furthermore, we estimated the accuracy of genomic selection (GS) for these traits, al

SUBMITTER: Beaulieu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7691460 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature