Plant Gene and Trait 2024, Vol.15, No.1, 23-32 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/pgt 23 Research Article Open Access Implementing Genomic Selection in Sugarcane Breeding Programs: Challenges and Opportunities Kaiwen Liang Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory of Crop Molecular Breeding, Sanya, 572025, Hainan, China Corresponding email: Kevinliang@hitar.org Plant Gene and Trait, 2024, Vol.15, No.1 doi: 10.5376/pgt.2024.15.0004 Received: 03 Jan., 2024 Accepted: 06 Feb., 2024 Published: 22 Feb., 2024 Copyright © 2024 Liang, This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Liang K.W., 2024, Implementing genomic selection in sugarcane breeding programs: challenges and opportunities, Plant Gene and Trait, 15(1): 23-32 (doi: 10.5376/pgt.2024.15.0004) Abstract Sugarcane is an important global crop, and its breeding progress has direct implications for the sugar industry and bioenergy sector. This review outlines the application of genomic selection (GS) technology in sugarcane breeding programs, the challenges faced, and the opportunities it presents. By analyzing existing research and case studies, the review explores how genomic selection technology can improve the genetic improvement process in sugarcane, including enhancing breeding efficiency by reducing breeding cycles and improving agronomic traits of varieties. The paper also discusses in detail the main challenges encountered in the implementation of the technology, such as the complexity of the sugarcane genome, difficulties in data management, and high costs. Finally, it summarizes the importance of genomic selection in optimizing sugarcane breeding and looks forward to future technological developments, hoping to overcome existing obstacles through continuous technological innovation and international cooperation to realize more effective sugarcane breeding strategies. Keywords Sugarcane breeding; Genomic selection; Breeding technology; Agricultural biotechnology; Genetic improvement 1 Introduction Sugarcane is an important agricultural crop in the world. It is not only the world's largest sugar source, but also plays an increasingly important role in the bioenergy industry. With the growth of global energy demand and the in-depth advancement of sustainable development strategies, the economic value and strategic status of sugarcane have been unprecedentedly enhanced. In the traditional sugar industry, sugarcane, as one of the main raw materials, has a decisive impact on the global sugar market; in the field of bioenergy, bioethanol produced from sugarcane not only helps reduce dependence on fossil fuels, but also significantly Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and play a positive role in environmental protection (Cherubin et al., 2021). Therefore, optimizing the production performance and adaptability of sugarcane will not only enhance its economic value, but is also an important factor in the continued improvement of the global environment. The breeding process of sugarcane can be described as long and complicated. Due to the high heterozygosity and large genome of sugarcane (Yadav et al., 2020), traditional breeding methods are not only time-consuming but also relatively inefficient. This directly leads to a long development cycle for new varieties and difficulty in accurately responding to rapidly changing market demands and environmental challenges. Since the end of the 20th century, with the development and application of molecular biology techniques, molecular breeding technology has gradually become an important means to improve the genetic characteristics of sugarcane. In particular, the emergence of genomic selection technology has brought revolutionary changes to sugarcane breeding. Genomic selection uses molecular markers across the entire genome to predict the genetic value of plants without fully understanding the specific functions of genes, greatly improving the accuracy and efficiency of selection (Luo et al., 2023). This review describes the current application status of genomic selection (GS) technology in sugarcane breeding projects and explores the main challenges and opportunities brought by this technology (Sandhu et al., 2022). By analyzing numerous research literature and specific breeding cases, the article discusses in detail how genomic selection technology can improve the genetic improvement process of sugarcane, especially how to enhance
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