Dr Sergey Nuzhdin1, Inessa Chandra, Brandon Vong, Maxim Kovalev, Dr Filipe Alberto
1University Southern California, United States
In selective breeding, application of several recurrent steps is required, such as recombination, genotyping, and selection. In most plants, these stages are implemented in diploid individuals, although some exceptions – like phenotyping of monoploids – are also practiced. For sugar kelp and giant kelp domestication programs germplasm development and genotyping have already been moved to the gametophyte stage, i.e. microscopic haploid stage, easing resequencing and SNP calling. Current breeding programs have practiced phenotyping and selection at the sporophyte stage, which we now propose to supplement with much cheaper and high throughput phenotyping at the gametophyte stage. As this stage exhibits vegetative growth, this could enable massive but cheap phenotyping. Here, we have used a range of genotypes to determine whether those growing fast as sporophytes, would also grow fast as gametophytes. Indeed, strong concordance has been established. We propose agar-based plates and genomic models optimizing selection response via selection at gametophyte, then verification at sporophyte stages.