Genotype by environment interaction characterization and its modeling with random regression to climatic variables in two rice breeding populations.

ABSTRACT.- Genotype by environment interaction (GEI) is one of the main challenges in plant breeding. A complete characterization of it is necessary to decide on proper breeding strategies. Random regression models (RRMs) allow a genotype-specific response to each regressor factor. RRMs that include selected environmental variables represent a promising approach to deal with GEI in genomic prediction. They enable to predict for both tested and untested environments, but their utility in a plant breeding scenario remains to be shown.