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Optimizing Genomic Selection in Strawberry with Dr. Joshua Sleper

Field, Lab, Earth

Release Date: 12/19/2025

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More Episodes

“Within-family genomic selection in strawberry: optimization of marker density, trial design, and training set composition” with Dr. Joshua Sleper

If plant breeding were a poker game, you’d have to play a lot of hands to beat the house. Quantitative genetics hopes to give players an advantage by recognizing patterns that can point to future success. In strawberry, a genetically complex and labor-intensive plant, this is particularly important. This episode, Joshua join me to discuss his work using quantitative genetics to help give strawberry breeders a hand.

Tune in to learn:

·        How some plants have “sticky cards” in their genetics

·        What challenges strawberry breeders face

·        How many clones are really enough

·        What lies on the horizon for strawberry breeding

If you would like more information about this topic, this episode’s paper is available here: https://doi.org/10.1002/tpg2.20550

This paper is always freely available.

Contact us at podcast@sciencesocieties.org or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you’d like to see old episodes or sign up for our newsletter, you can do so here: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/.

If you would like to reach out to Joshua, you can find him here:
j.sleper@ufl.edu

Resources

CEU Quiz: https://web.sciencesocieties.org/Learning-Center/Courses/Course-Detail?productid=%7b9908BAD4-89DB-F011-8544-000D3A3685DF%7d 

Transcripts: https://www.rev.com/app/captions/Njk0NTVlNWFiMDVjNzQyMjA1Y2UzZGVmM3VIdF9Va0FSbGhF/o/Q1AwNjIzNzcwNTI2

Rex Bernardo’s Essentials of Plant Breeding: https://www.abebooks.com/9780972072427/Essentials-Plant-Breeding-Rex-Bernardo-097207242X/plp  

A Quarter Century of Genomewide Prediction - Dr. Rex Bernardo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K45M4N9mJBM&t=8s

Field, Lab, Earth is Copyrighted by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.