Quantitative genetic parameters for growth and wood properties in Eucalyptus “urograndis” hybrid using near-infrared phenotyping and genome-wide SNP-based relationships

• Autores: de Lima, Bruno Marco; Cappa, Eduardo Pablo; Silva-Junior, Orzenil B.; García, Carla C.; Mansfield, Shawn D.; Grattapaglia, Dario
• Año de publicación: 2019
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: PLoS ONE 14 (6): e0218747 (June 2019)
• Materia: Phenotypes; Single Nucleotide Polymorphism; Quantitative Genetics; Fenotipos; Eucalyptus; Polimorfismo de un Solo Nucleótido; Genética Cuantitativa
• Institución: Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria

A thorough understanding of the heritability, genetic correlations and additive and non-additive variance components of tree growth and wood properties is a requisite for effective tree breeding. This knowledge is essential to maximize genetic gain, that is, the amount of increase in trait performance achieved annually through directional selection. Understanding the genetic attributes of traits targeted by breeding is also important to sustain decadelong genetic progress, that is, the progress made by increasing the average genetic value of the offspring as compared to that of the parental generation. In this study, we report quantitative genetic parameters for fifteen growth, wood chemical and physical traits for the worldfamous Eucalyptus urograndis hybrid (E. grandis×E. urophylla). These traits directly impact the optimal use of wood for cellulose pulp, paper, and energy production. A population of 1,000 trees sampled in a progeny trial was phenotyped directly or following the development and use of near-infrared spectroscopy calibration models. Trees were genotyped with 33,398 SNPs and 24,001 DArT-seq genome-wide markers and genomic realized relationship matrices (GRM) were used for parameter estimation with an individual-tree additivedominant mixed model. Wood chemical properties and wood density showed stronger genetic control than growth, cellulose and fiber traits. Additive effects are the main drivers of genetic variation for all traits, but dominance plays an equally or more important role for growth, singularly in this hybrid. GRM´s with>10,000 markers provided stable relationships estimates and more accurate parameters than pedigrees by capturing the full genetic relationships among individuals and disentangling the non-additive from the additive genetic component. Low correlations between growth and wood properties indicate that simultaneous selection for wood traits can be applied with minor effects on genetic gain for growth. Conversely, moderate to strong correlations between wood density and chemical traits exist, likely due to their interdependency on cell wall structure such that responses to selection will be connected for these traits. Our results illustrate the advantage of using genomewide marker data to inform tree breeding in general and have important consequences for operational breeding of eucalypt urograndis hybrids.
Fil: de Lima, Bruno Marco. FIBRIA S.A. Technology Center; Brasil
Fil: Cappa, Eduardo Pablo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Recursos Biológicos; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina
Fil: Silva-Junior, Orzenil B. da. EMBRAPA Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia; Brasil. Universidade Católica de Brasilia. Programa de Ciencias Genéticas y Biotecnología; Brasil
Fil: García, Carla C. International Paper of Brazil; Brasil
Fil: Mansfield, Shawn D. University of British Columbia. Faculty of Forestry. Department of Wood Science; Canadá
Fil: Grattapaglia, Dario. EMBRAPA Recursos Genéticos e Biotecnologia; Brasil. Universidade Católica de Brasilia. Programa de Ciencias Genéticas y Biotecnología; Brasil