Graduate Student Li Meinhold Presents Transformer-Based Genomic Prediction in Wheat

Graduate student Li Meinhold presented his research on Transformer-based genomic prediction at the 2026 National Association of Plant Breeders (NAPB) Annual Meeting, held June 15–18 in College Station, Texas. Li developed a Transformer-based model integrating genotypic and environmental data to predict wheat grain yield, heading date, and plant height. Using two years of field data, the model outperformed conventional genomic prediction methods. His research also explored breeding simulations to optimize selection and crossing strategies, highlighting the potential of deep learning to accelerate wheat improvement.