Thinking Ahead: Breeding Strategies That Utilize Genomic Data to the Full Extent

With the technological revolution in sequencing and genotyping platforms, breeders are now capable of using genome-wide variomic data to select their breeding materials. In this talk, we will discuss what the impact is of choosing the optimal strategy to achieve breeding goals in traits of various genetic complexity. For many crops, breeding programs aim for the maximum improvement (or at least culling levels) for multiple traits in each new breeding cycle. This requires either a combination of strategies or a strategy that covers all. We will present a new breeding strategy, termed directed genomic selection, that rationalizes “memory” and “foresight” of the selection process, herewith enhancing the efficiency of GS by selecting the best parent subset to obtain the best expected offspring in the next 1-5 generations.