TY - JOUR

T1 - Genomic evaluation for breeding and genetic management in Cordia africana, a multipurpose tropical tree species

AU - Ousmael, Kedra M.

AU - Cappa, Eduardo P.

AU - Hansen, Jon K.

AU - Hendre, Prasad

AU - Hansen, Ole K.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Background: Planting tested forest reproductive material is crucial to ensure the increased resilience of intensively managed productive stands for timber and wood product markets under climate change scenarios. Single-step Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (ssGBLUP) analysis is a cost-effective option for using genomic tools to enhance the accuracy of predicted breeding values and genetic parameter estimation in forest tree species. Here, we tested the efficiency of ssGBLUP in a tropical multipurpose tree species, Cordia africana, by partial population genotyping. A total of 8070 trees from three breeding seedling orchards (BSOs) were phenotyped for height. We genotyped 6.1% of the phenotyped individuals with 4373 single nucleotide polymorphisms. The results of ssGBLUP were compared with pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction (ABLUP) and genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), based on genetic parameters, theoretical accuracy of breeding values, selection candidate ranking, genetic gain, and predictive accuracy and prediction bias. Results: Genotyping a subset of the study population provided insights into the level of relatedness in BSOs, allowing better genetic management. Due to the inbreeding detected within the genotyped provenances, we estimated genetic parameters both with and without accounting for inbreeding. The ssGBLUP model showed improved performance in terms of additive genetic variance and theoretical breeding value accuracy. Similarly, ssGBLUP showed improved predictive accuracy and lower bias than the pedigree-based relationship matrix (ABLUP). Conclusions: This study of C. africana, a species in decline due to deforestation and selective logging, revealed inbreeding depression. The provenance exhibiting the highest level of inbreeding had the poorest overall performance. The use of different relationship matrices and accounting for inbreeding did not substantially affect the ranking of candidate individuals. This is the first study of this approach in a tropical multipurpose tree species, and the analysed BSOs represent the primary effort to breed C. africana.

AB - Background: Planting tested forest reproductive material is crucial to ensure the increased resilience of intensively managed productive stands for timber and wood product markets under climate change scenarios. Single-step Genomic Best Linear Unbiased Prediction (ssGBLUP) analysis is a cost-effective option for using genomic tools to enhance the accuracy of predicted breeding values and genetic parameter estimation in forest tree species. Here, we tested the efficiency of ssGBLUP in a tropical multipurpose tree species, Cordia africana, by partial population genotyping. A total of 8070 trees from three breeding seedling orchards (BSOs) were phenotyped for height. We genotyped 6.1% of the phenotyped individuals with 4373 single nucleotide polymorphisms. The results of ssGBLUP were compared with pedigree-based best linear unbiased prediction (ABLUP) and genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP), based on genetic parameters, theoretical accuracy of breeding values, selection candidate ranking, genetic gain, and predictive accuracy and prediction bias. Results: Genotyping a subset of the study population provided insights into the level of relatedness in BSOs, allowing better genetic management. Due to the inbreeding detected within the genotyped provenances, we estimated genetic parameters both with and without accounting for inbreeding. The ssGBLUP model showed improved performance in terms of additive genetic variance and theoretical breeding value accuracy. Similarly, ssGBLUP showed improved predictive accuracy and lower bias than the pedigree-based relationship matrix (ABLUP). Conclusions: This study of C. africana, a species in decline due to deforestation and selective logging, revealed inbreeding depression. The provenance exhibiting the highest level of inbreeding had the poorest overall performance. The use of different relationship matrices and accounting for inbreeding did not substantially affect the ranking of candidate individuals. This is the first study of this approach in a tropical multipurpose tree species, and the analysed BSOs represent the primary effort to breed C. africana.

KW - Cordia africana

KW - Genetic management

KW - Quantitative genetic parameters

KW - Single-step GBLUP

KW - Tropical tree breeding

U2 - 10.1186/s12864-023-09907-z

DO - 10.1186/s12864-023-09907-z

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38166623

AN - SCOPUS:85181253812

VL - 25

JO - BMC Genomics

JF - BMC Genomics

SN - 1471-2164

M1 - 9

ER -