Mutation breeding for quantitative traits in the era of genomic selection

Genomic selection in advanced mutant panels of wheat (190 lines) and tomato (74 lines) predicts quantitative traits up to 0.39 and 0.45, but only from variants shared among lines.

• Why it matters: Mutation breeding can create induced polygenic variation, yet it is unclear whether genomic selection can capture that variation when mutations are private to individual mutant lines.
• What they did: The study tested genomic selection in two public advanced mutant panels and in simulated biparental and multiparental crosses derived from mutants, comparing predictive abilities and genetic gain versus MAS.
• The result: Predictive signal came only from shared variants, while private variants carried none; in simulations GS beat MAS (2.84 vs 0.45 after two cycles) when mutations were numerous and balanced, and mutant founders increased gain 1.3- to 6.8-fold over five cycles when mutational variance was large.