A novel method for genomic-enabled prediction of cultivars in new environments

INTRODUCTION: Genomic selection (GS) has gained global importance due to its potential to accelerate genetic progress and improve the efficiency of breeding programs. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH: In this research we proposed a method to improve the prediction accuracy of tested lines in new (untested) environments. METHOD-1: The new method trained the model with a modified response variable (a difference of response variables) that decreases the lack of a non-stationary distribution between the training and testing and improved the prediction accuracy. COMPARING NEW AND CONVENTIONAL METHOD: We compared the prediction accuracy of the conventional genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) model (M1) including (or not) genotype × environment interaction (GE) (M1_GE; M1_NO_GE) versus the proposed method (M2) on several data sets. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The gain in prediction accuracy of M2, versus M1_GE, M1_NO_GE in terms of Pearson´s correlation was of at least 4.3%, while in terms of percentage of top-yielding lines captured when was selected the 10% (Best10) and 20% (Best20) of lines was at least of 19.5%, while in terms of Normalized Root Mean Squared Error (NRMSE) was of at least of 42.29%.