Bionote
Sarah Widener Richards is a Ph.D. candidate with a background in crop and soil science, complemented by industry experience in agronomy, agricultural technology, and AI. She conducts her research in the Lipka Lab, which specializes in Quantitative Genetics. Her long-term research goals focus on understanding gene-by-environment (GxE) interactions and advancing arid crop breeding to support food security in the Middle East. Currently, she is developing GxE models for perennialized sorghum, integrating environmental covariates—such as weather data—into genomic prediction models to analyze perennialism and yield performance.
Presentation Abstract
As we are faced with the pressing matter of food insecurity, a force accelerated by climate change and population growth, novel crops are necessary to meet the rising demands. Perennial sorghum is on such crop. Known for its drought resistance and climate resilience it offers great potential for cultivation in arid regions. This research aims to identify the best genomic selection model for high predictive abilities in perennial sorghum enabling breeders to expedite the breeding cycle.
We evaluated the impact of Multi-BLUP, which partitions genetic information in a basic genomic selection model, using both real and simulated data. We also analyzed the inclusion of environmental covariates and a general environment term in our genomic selection models. Additionally, we assessed the effectiveness of these models with the constraints of small sample size and hard to phenotype perennial traits. The data used for this study spanned two locations and years.
The deliverable for this project is a R package capable of preforming genomic selection for perennial and general crop traits in perennialized sorghum. This tool will assist breeders in developing high yielding and climate change resilient varieties.
Co-Researcher: Alex Lipka, Leonardo Oliveria Silva da Costa, Talissa Floriani, Deniz Bueno