The goals of quantitative genetics differ according to its field of application. In plant breeding, the main focus of quantitative genetics is on identifying candidates with the best genotypic value for a target population of environments. Keeping quantitative genetics current requires keeping old concepts that remain useful, letting go of what has become archaic, and introducing new concepts and methods that support contemporary breeding. The core concept of continuous variation being due to multiple Mendelian loci remains unchanged. Because the entirety of germplasm available in a breeding program is not in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium, classical concepts that assume random mating, such as the average effect of an allele and additive variance, need to be retired in plant breeding. Doing so is feasible because with molecular markers, mixed-model approaches that require minimal genetic assumptions can be used for best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE) and prediction. Plant breeding would benefit from borrowing approaches found useful in other disciplines. Examples include reliability as a new measure of the influence of genetic versus nongenetic effects, and operations research and simulation approaches for designing breeding programs. The genetic entities in such simulations should not be generic but should be represented by the pedigrees, marker data, and phenotypic data for the actual germplasm in a breeding program. Over the years, quantitative genetics in plant breeding has become increasingly empirical and computational and less grounded in theory. This trend will continue as the amount and types of data available in a breeding program increase.

中文翻译：

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重塑植物育种的数量遗传学：旧的、新的、借来的、蓝色的


数量遗传学的目标根据其应用领域的不同而不同。在植物育种中，定量遗传学的主要重点是识别对目标环境群体具有最佳基因型价值的候选者。保持数量遗传学的最新性需要保留仍然有用的旧概念，放弃已经过时的概念，并引入支持当代育种的新概念和方法。由于多个孟德尔基因座而导致的连续变异的核心概念保持不变。由于育种计划中可用的全部种质并不处于哈代-温伯格平衡状态，因此假设随机交配的经典概念（例如等位基因的平均效应和加性方差）需要在植物育种中废弃。这样做是可行的，因为通过分子标记，需要最少遗传假设的混合模型方法可用于最佳线性无偏估计（BLUE）和预测。植物育种将受益于其他学科中有用的借鉴方法。例子包括作为遗传效应与非遗传效应影响的新衡量标准的可靠性，以及用于设计育种计划的运筹学和模拟方法。这种模拟中的遗传实体不应该是通用的，而应该由育种计划中实际种质的谱系、标记数据和表型数据来表示。多年来，植物育种中的数量遗传学变得越来越经验化和计算化，而理论基础越来越少。随着育种计划中可用数据的数量和类型的增加，这种趋势将继续下去。