Proposal of a new seed orchard layout assuming panmictic model

The new panmictic model of seed orchard scheme for forests trees is described in this thesis. It can be used either alone or in combination with existing designs without losing efficiency. In this case it iscombined with Minimum Inbreeding design. The establishment of seed orchards and importance of achieving panmixy and minimizing inbreeding in the population of seed orchard are described in the theoretical part. The resultant algorithm defines panmictic situation as a situation where close neighborhoods of all possible combinations of clones occur within the seed orchard grid with the same frequency. To achieve this we developed a formula for variance that is minimized as a criterion function. The algorithm has been programmed in R and it was tested for different tasks including balanced or unbalanced numbers of clones and different sizes or shapes (rectangular or non-rectangular shape) of orchard. The model is able to solve all of these situations, and it is very effective especially in the case of balanced numbers of clones. Optimal solution of the given task was often found at the first iteration. To evaluate the relative quality of resulting schemes theoretic proxy to level of maximum panmixy was defined for every specific task- the Theoretical minimum variance. The effectiveness of MI scheme combined with clonal rows was also evaluated. The result is a hybrid scheme with predefined MI clonal rows surrounded by panmictic algorithm, while close neighborhood of clonal rows was also optimized. This scheme will be used for the establishment of Abies fraseriseed orchard in North Carolina under NCSU Christmas Tree Genetics Program. Another possible modifications of the algorithm, such as the inclusion of local separation zones or assortative mating are summarized in conclusions