Allele Frequency Changes over Five Cycles of Genomic Selection in a Barley Breeding Population

The use of genomic selection (GS) has become widespread in plant breeding since its introduction slightly more than a decade ago. Its popularity arises from many factors, one being its ability to simultaneously enrich (diminish) a population for the favorable (unfavorable) alleles of influential genetic loci. The University of Minnesota Barley program has conducted five cycles of advanced cycle breeding using GS in its spring six-row breeding program, providing an ideal population for an empirical evaluation of GS. Using the five cycles, each comprised of 50 selected individuals accompanied by 50 randomly selected individuals, genotyped with a common marker panel, allele frequency changes and other population genetic parameters have been analyzed for the presence of selection signatures and provide part of the empirical evidence for the effectiveness of GS in plant breeding.