Optimal Contribution Selection Improves the Rate of Genetic Gain in Grain Yield and Yield Stability in Spring Canola in Australia and Canada.

ABSTRACT: Crop breeding must achieve higher rates of genetic gain in grain yield (GY) and yield stability to meet future food demands in a changing climate. Optimal contributions selection (OCS) based on an index of key economic traits should increase the rate of genetic gain while minimising population inbreeding. Here we apply OCS in a global spring oilseed rape (canola) breeding program during three cycles of S_0,1 family selection in 2016, 2018, and 2020, with several field trials per cycle in Australia and Canada. Economic weights in the index promoted high GY, seed oil, protein in meal, and Phoma stem canker (blackleg) disease resistance while maintaining plant height, flowering time, oleic acid, and seed size and decreasing glucosinolate content. After factor analytic modelling of t

SUBMITTER: Cowling WA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9863350 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature