Interactive graphs to help breeders take decisions

When studying hybrid phenotypic and genotypic data, it is challenging to find the right graphical representations, to answer a broad range of questions: Choose next season hybrids, evaluate costs, lands, manage resources... 

Dynamic visualization tools enable breeders to display and manage large amounts of heterogeneous data generated in a material’s lifecycle. Let's discuss some innovative ways to study germplasm and find interesting crosses !

Interactive matrix presentation to visualize the hybrid campaign results

The Hybrid Comparison matrix  enables qualification of the hybrids we are evaluating

A matrix presentation such as the one above presents all the results of a trial network. Female parents in raws, males in columns and every hybrid evaluated during the campaign in the inner cells. In every cell can be read the hybrid's mean of yield results. Cell color corresponds to the specific combining ability of the hybrid's parents, on a scale of four  colors.

The matrix is interactive, we can use filters to remove some parents that have low GCA. In the animation, we have kept only males and females with SCA > 0. As a result, the breeder visualizes quickly the best parents for this program, and the possible crosses that could generate interesting hybrids in the next season !

Finding correlations {pedigree x agronomic traits} and best new descendants to evaluate

A multi-windowing tool enables to visualize heterogeneous data, such as the pedigree of a selected hybrid on the one hand, and on the other hand the performances of  this hybrid's "relatives" such as graphs, raw data and statistics. 

Top-left presentation: All the hybrids in the trial network, with information on the genotype, general means. The breeder can select one raw of this table to display information on that hybrid in the other presentations.

Top-right presentation : General pedigree information. In green at the center is the hybrid we are studying. Just above, the two original parents, and on the sides of the green hybrid, all the "related hybrids" descending from the original male parent (in blue) and from the original female parent (in pink).

Bottom-left: Graphical representation of the performances of all the "related hybrids":  Yield and Moisture.

Bottom-right: Table of the raw data results coming from all experiments of the trial network (plot results) for the hybrids selected in the bottom-left graph.

Accurate choices and relevant decisions along the breeding program

From starting crosses to product development, every breeding process can be optimized by a digital tool for decision-making that handles:
- High amount of heterogeneous data ;
- Automation of key decisional flow steps ;
- Dynamic graphical Tools.

Further readings

Check out the scientific article about dynamic genealogy graphs that has been published in 2017 at Plant and Animal Genome Conference by Doriane® team, agronomy and IT specialists. Using RnDExp® software, they studied 90 hybrids resulting from 200 starting crosses (25 females x 8 males), evaluated on 5 locations with two replicates. The aim was to compare yield results and calculation of GCA/SCA.

The original poster was called "How interactive genealogy graphs enable to explore a hybrid's extended family and study the performances of its members for mutliple traits, all within RnDExp"

Watch the replay video of our webinar "Dynamic graphs enable to study a hybrid's extended family" !

When studying hybrid phenotypic and genotypic data, it is challenging to find the right graphical representations, to answer a broad range of questions. The difficulty stems from the large amount of heterogeneous data generated in a material’s lifecycle that needs to be displayed and managed.
Speaker : Tristan Duminil, Agronomist Engineer, Business Manager.