ABSTRACT
Major oilseeds such as soybean, oil palm, rapeseed, and sunflower contribute significantly to human as well as animal nutritional needs. The increase in oilseed production is, however, only marginal due to limited cultivation areas and climate changes. Genomic selection (GS) has led to significant genetic gain and acts as a game changer by speeding up the breeding programs mainly through shortening the breeding cycle and increasing the selection intensity. With a continuous decrease in the cost of genomic data generation and the development of statistical tools and software, GS became more accessible to breeders. In this chapter, we examine the status of GS in major as well as minor oilseed crops. Most of the studies on oilseed crops emphasize factors affecting the GS of oil production, complex traits, training population size, models, genomic relationships, marker type and density, and heritability. Also, the ability of GS to predict the parental lines indicates its potential in hybrid breeding as demonstrated in sunflower. We infer that comprehensive breeding programs are required for minor oilseed crops also. This way, GS will help in meeting global non-nutritional demands such as medicine development as well.
