Genotype by environment interactions in forest tree breeding: review of methodology and perspectives on research and application

By Yongjun Li, M. Suontama, R. Burdon, H. Dungey. Tree Genetics & Genomes, 2017

193 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Genotype by environment interaction (G×E) refers to the comparative performances of genotypes differing among environments, representing differences in genotype rankings or differences in the level of expression of genetic differences among environments. G×E can reduce heritability and overall genetic gain, unless breeding programmes are structured to address different categories of environments. Understanding the impact of G×E, the role of environments in generating G×E and the problems and opportunities is vital to efficient breeding programme design and deployment of genetic material. We review the current main analytical methods for identifying G×E: factor analytic models, biplot analysis and reaction norm. We also review biological and statistical evidence of G×E for growth, form and wood properties in forest species of global economic importance, including some pines, eucalypts, Douglas-fir, spruces and some poplars. Among these species, high levels of G×E tend to be reported for growth traits, with low levels of G×E for form traits and wood properties. Finally, we discuss possible ways of exploiting G×E to maximise genetic gain in forest tree breeding. Characterising the role of environments in generating interactions is seen as the basic platform, allowing efficient testing of candidate genotypes. We discuss the importance of level-of-expression interaction, relative to rank-change interaction, as being greater than in many past reports, especially for deployment decisions. We examine the impacts of G×E on tree breeding, some environmental factors that cause G×E and the strategies for dealing with G×E in tree breeding, and the future role of genomics.

Subfields: Genetics, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/029dec48152f0aea38d8f599fa1d70e9a0dcd0db

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Genetics

In Plant Science

Citations in the corpus

The genomics of local adaptation in trees: are we out of the woods yet? (2017, background): “Indeed, it is likely that consistent fluctuations in the environment would select for environmentally perceptive responses, which seems to be the case across many tree species (Li et al. 2017).”
Genotype-by-environment interaction and yield stability analysis of biomass sorghum hybrids using factor analytic models and environmental covariates (2020, methodology): “G × E studies have been widely implemented using FA structures to understand the adaptability and stability of genotypes across environments (Dias et al., 2018a; Li et al., 2017; Peixouto et al., 2016), and also to define mega-environments in plant breeding programs (Monteverde et al.”
Genomic Selection for Forest Tree Improvement: Methods, Achievements and Perspectives (2020, background): “Poor understanding of phenotype formation mechanisms in forestry can lead to unpredictable behavior of some genotypes under certain environmental conditions [89].”