Performance of multi-trait and single-trait genomic selection for grain Fe and Zn concentrations in sorghum under different breeding constraints

Habyarimana, E and Chavan, S and Hugar, C and Suvarna, - and Thakur, N R and Lopez-Cruz, M and Ruperao, P (2025) Performance of multi-trait and single-trait genomic selection for grain Fe and Zn concentrations in sorghum under different breeding constraints. Scientific Reports (TSI), 15. pp. 1-15. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

Sorghum biofortification is a cost-effective approach to solving the issue of micronutrient deficiencies in human diets. Research programs face challenges, e.g., phenotyping time, cost, and accuracy in evaluating breeding populations across years and environments, which can be addressed through genomic selection (GS). The present GS work on sorghum grain Fe and Zn contents revealed that the multi-trait genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) model (MT-GBLUP) consistently outperformed single-trait GBLUP (ST-GBLUP) in terms of prediction accuracy (PA) under different breeding resource-constrained scenarios. The PA gain by MT-GBLUP for Fe (0.274) and Zn (0.183) was greater when information was borrowed from auxiliary agronomic traits evaluated in a few locations than when only highly correlated target traits (Fe and Zn) were evaluated in more years and locations (PA gain ≤ 0.005). These results suggest that easily scorable non-target traits can inform and improve MT-GBLUP prediction accuracy for the genomic estimated breeding values of the target traits, thereby significantly saving multi-environment testing resources and potentially boosting genetic gain per unit time and cost.

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Global Research Program - Accelerated Crop Improvement
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Micronutrients biofortification, Genomic selection, Multi-trait GBLUP, Prediction accuracy, Sorghum bicolor
Subjects:	Others > Plant Genetics Mandate crops > Sorghum Others > Genetics and Genomics
Depositing User:	Mr Nagaraju T
Date Deposited:	02 Jan 2026 03:54
Last Modified:	02 Jan 2026 03:54
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/13407
Official URL:	https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-29176-y
Projects:	ICRISAT’s Sorghum Hybrid Parents Research Consortium (SHPRC)
Funders:	UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement:	Authors acknowledge the Genebank of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT, Patancheru) for providing the minicore collection of sorghum for conducting the experiment. The authors also thank Mr. Jayakumar Jaganathan for his help in executing and managing the trials.
Links:	Google Scholar

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