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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Houma, Louisiana » Sugarcane Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #373019
Research Project: Genetic Improvement of Sugarcane for Adaptation to Temperate Climates

Location: Sugarcane Research

Title: Genomic selection: A new marker-assisted breeding tool to facilitate Louisiana sugarcane variety development

Author
item BAISAKH, NIRANJAN - LSU Agcenter
item KIMBENG, COLLINS - LSU Agcenter
item PONTIFF, MICHAEL - LSU Agcenter
item HOY, JEFFREY - LSU Agcenter
item GRAVOIS, KENNETH - LSU Agcenter
item Hale, Anna
item Todd, James

Submitted to: Sugar Bulletin
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/12/2019
Publication Date: 1/20/2020
Citation: Baisakh, N., Kimbeng, C., Pontiff, M., Hoy, J., Gravois, K., Hale, A.L., Todd, J.R. 2020. Genomic selection: A new marker-assisted breeding tool to facilitate Louisiana sugarcane variety development. Sugar Bulletin. 98(4):23-25.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Sugarcane breeding in Louisiana has been highly successful, with sugar yields doubling since the 1970s. The breeding process is a long-term and labor-intensive endeavour that requires characterization and selection of all potential new varieties. This characterization is challenging considering that many of the traits are highly influenced by the environment and can change from season to season or location to location. The use of DNA-markers may be able to overcome some of the limitations to phenotypic selection. The Louisana sugarcane industry is investing in the development of trait-specific DNA markers and has been doing so for years. Recently, researchers have devised another strategy termed "genomic selection" which uses markers dispersed across the entire sugarcane genome to estimate breeding values. Training populations are composed of a set of varieties composed of elite commercial varieties and historical parents used in the crossing program. Since considerable data exists for the varieties in the training population, breeding values can be estimated based on combining the genomic and phenotypic data. These breeding values can be used to predict the performace of sugarcane clones early in the selection program thereby increasing selection efficiency and efficacy and ultimately reducing the length of the breeding cycle.