Modelling of Genotype by Environment Interaction and Prediction of Complex Traits across Multiple Environments as a Synthesis of Crop Growth Modelling, Genetics and Statistics

Selection processes in plant breeding depend critically on the quality of phenotype predictions. The phenotype is classically predicted as a function of genotypic and environmental information. Models for phenotype prediction contain a mixture of statistical, genetic and physiological elements. In this chapter, we discuss prediction from linear mixed models (LMMs), with an emphasis on statistics, and prediction from crop growth models (CGMs), with an emphasis on physiology. Three modalities of prediction are distinguished: predictions for new genotypes under known environmental conditions, predictions for known genotypes under new environmental conditions, and predictions for new genotypes under new environmental conditions. For LMMs, the genotypic input information includes molecular marker variation, while the environmental input can consist of meteorological, soil and management variables. However, integrated types of environmental characterizations obtained from CGMs can also serve as environmental covariable in LMMs. LMMs consist of a fixed part, corresponding to the mean for a particular genotype in a particular environment, and a random part defined by genotypic and environmental variances and correlations. For prediction via the fixed part, genotypic and/or environmental covariables are required as in classical regression. For predictions via the random part, correlations need to be estimated between observed and new genotypes, between observed and new environments, or both. These correlations can be based on similarities calculated from genotypic and environmental covariables. A simple type of covariable assigns genotypes to sub-populations and environments to regions. Such groupings can improve phenotype prediction. For a second type of phenotype prediction, we consider CGMs. CGMs predict a target phenotype as a non-linear function of underlying intermediate phenotypes. The intermediate phenotypes are outcomes of functions defined on genotype dependent CGM parameters and classical environmental descriptors. While the intermediate phenotypes may still show some genotype by environment interaction, the genotype dependent CGM parameters should be consistent across environmental conditions. The CGM parameters are regressed on molecular marker information to allow phenotype prediction from molecular marker information and standard physiologically relevant environmental information. Both LMMs and CGMs require extensive characterization of genotypes and environments. High-throughput technologies for genotyping and phenotyping provide new opportunities for upscaling phenotype prediction and increasing the response to selection in the breeding process