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Article|06 Jan 2026|OPEN
Strategic global data integration to improve genomic prediction accuracy in tree breeding programs facing resource limitations, a case study in mango
Abdulqader Jighly1,2 , , Norman Munyengwa3 , Reem Joukhadar2 , Vanika Garg1 , Natalie Dillon4 , Rhys G.R. Copeland1 , Jugpreet Singh5 , Sukhwinder Singh6 , Christopher I. Cazzonelli7 , Penghao Wang1 , Peter Prentis8 and Craig Hardner3 , Rajeev K. Varshney,1 ,
1State Agricultural Biotechnology Centre, Centre for Crop and Food Innovation, Food Futures Institute, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA, 6150, Australia
2AgriSapiens PTY LTD, VIC 3108, Australia
3Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland 4072, Australia
4Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Mareeba, Queensland 4880, Australia
5Department of Horticultural Sciences, University of Florida IFAS, Tropical Research and Education Centre, Homestead, FL 33031, USA
6United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Subtropical Horticulture Research Station (SHRS), Miami, FL 33158, USA
7Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Hawkesbury Campus, Western Sydney University, Richmond, New South Wales 2753, Australia
8Centre for Agriculture and Bioeconomy, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4001, Australia
*Corresponding author. E-mail: a.jighly@agrisapiens.com.au,Rajeev.Varshney@murdoch.edu.au

Horticulture Research 13,
Article number: uhag004 (2026)
doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/hr/uhag004
Views: 36

Received: 29 Aug 2025
Accepted: 31 Dec 2025
Published online: 06 Jan 2026

Abstract

Genomic prediction (GP) in mango breeding faces challenges due to the species’ complex biology, long cycles, and limited reference populations. To accelerate genetic improvement, this study integrated data from diverse global populations to increase the reference population size. It included three mango collections reserved in Australia (225), USA (161), and China (224), totaling 610 individuals. Fruit weight (FW) and total soluble solids (TSS) were measured in multiple datasets, while several other traits were measured in specific datasets. We evaluated genetic diversity, performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and assessed GP accuracy using standard, genotype-by-environment (GxE), and multitrait models, both within and across collections. Findings revealed a highly admixed genetic structure, with faster linkage disequilibrium (LD) decay in the Chinese collection, indicating higher genetic diversity. Data integration significantly enhanced GWAS power, identifying 19 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for FW and 9 for TSS. GxE models consistently achieved higher or comparable prediction accuracies for FW and TSS compared to the non-GxE models, especially when combining Australian and US collections. This was not the case when predicting into or from the Chinese collection, mostly due to differences in the phenotyping protocol. While single-trait models performed comparably to multitrait models in predicting new individuals (Cross-Validation: CV1), multitrait models significantly improved prediction accuracy in scenarios with incomplete phenotypic records (CV2). This study demonstrates that strategic global data integration significantly enhances GWAS power and GP accuracy in mango. This collaborative approach is crucial for developing more efficient and accelerated breeding programmes for mango and other perennial trees.