A1195
Title: Estimating genetic gain and implementing genomic selection in a student-led barley breeding program
Authors: Reka Howard - University of Nebraska - Lincoln (United States) [presenting]
Sydney Graham - University of Nebraska - Lincoln (United States)
Katherine Frels - University of Nebraska - Lincoln (United States)
Abstract: In Nebraska, winter feed barley presents an emerging market for producers and an opportunity to diversify cropping systems. The University of Nebraska barley breeding program aims to develop high-yielding, winter-hardy varieties. A unique aspect of this program is that doctoral students serve as barley breeders and are responsible for crossing, data collection, and advancement decisions. A historical data set is used to evaluate the realized genetic gain of the University of Nebraska barley breeding program, then as a training population for genomic selection. The dataset consisted of 302 genotypes from the advanced yield trial evaluated from 2002 to 2022 in three Nebraska locations. Genomic selection models included four variations of GBLUP, four Bayesian models, and two machine learning approaches (random forest, support vector machine) and were applied for both winter survival and grain yield. The implementation of genomic selection models has the benefit of improving barley varieties for the program and can also aid future student barley breeders in their selection strategies.