VSN International ASReml v2.0

Solving the big puzzles in animal and plant breeding

First developed to analyse data from the crop variety
evaluation program in southern NSW, ASReml is currently
being used in 35 countries, by scientists from 235
institutions. In Australia for example, ASReml is used to
collate and predict varietal performance from more than 500
grain variety trials conducted each year. It is also used in
the sugar industry, which says it has led to new varieties
being released earlier and greater genetic gain, adding an
estimated $20 million annually in value to the industry in
Australia.

Research Leader for DPI Biometrics, Dr Brian Cullis, says,
ôthe package helps farmers, breeders and crop variety
evaluators obtain the most reliable predictions of genetic
value for a range of crops grown in different environments.
It means farmers can get the best information available
about performance of varieties in their own location and
make an informed decision.ö

Developed in the early 1990s by Dr Cullis, leading DPI
biometrician Dr Arthur Gilmour and Professor Robin Thompson
from Rothamsted Research in the UK, ASReml arose from a need
to analyse12 years of data from 1,071 wheat variety trials.
The resulting meta-analysis established and quantified
interactions between acid tolerance, crop maturity and
sowing date of wheat varieties in southern NSW.

According to Dr Cullis, ôthe strength of the ASReml project
is that it can implement up-to-date and efficient
statistical methodogies quickly and make them available to
the user. Today, researchers routinely use ASReml to
undertake meta-analyses of data in the agricultural,
biological, medical and biological sciences.ö

The latest version, ASReml 2.0, was released after three
years of testing and development. It included input from 9
PhD students. Work is currently underway on ASReml 3.

Rothamsted Research is regarded as the UKÆs premier
agriculture research institute, and credits ASReml with
having a major impact on ensuring science quality within the
organisation. In the last decade, 30 scientific articles
have been published on ASREml. At one meeting of the
Australasian Association for the Advancement of Breeding and
Genetics, ASReml was cited in 41% of the papers presented.