Breeding strategies for sustainable forage and turf grass improvement

From the 4th - 8th of September 2011, the Eucarpia Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses Section, held its 29th Meeting in the surroundings of Dublin Castle in Ireland. The theme of the meeting was 'Breeding strategies for sustainable forage and turf grass improvement'. Grasslands cover a significant proportion of the land mass of the world, and play a pivotal role in global food production. At the same time we are faced with several challenges that affect the way in which we think about this valuable set of resources. The population of the world is expected to exceed 9 billion by 2050, and increase of about one third relative to today's levels. This population increase will be focused in urban areas, and in what are currently viewed as "developing" countries, meaning that the buying power of this increased population will be greater - shifting the balance of demand from staple crops to high value items such as meat and dairy products. Overall that the world will have to approximately double agricultural output across all categories of food to meet the demands of this larger, urbanised population. This is occurring against a backdrop of equally large challenges in terms of global climate change. Agriculture is already a significant contributor to e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and soil erosion. The situation is made more complex by an increased emphasis on biofuels as a solution for our imminent oil shortage, resulting in increased competition between land utilised for food and fuel. In short, agriculture must continue to feed the world, whilst not contributing to damaging it further. It must be sustainable. Plant breeding plays a significant but frequently understated role in meeting the challenges presented by this complex and changing scenario. However, plant breeding and improvement is itself undergoing radical change driven by technology. This book explores how forage and turf breeding is changing and adapting to meet these challenges using the technological advances being experienced in plant breeding as a whole.

InhaltsangabePreface.- 1. What global and/or European agriculture will need from grasslands and grassland breeding over the next 10-15 years for a sustainable agriculture; D. Reheul et al.- 2.1. Marker Assisted Selection Made Cheap and Easy; H. Riday et al.- 2.2. Genome-wide SNP marker development and QTL identification for genomic selection in red clover; S. Isobe et al.- 2.3. Breeding for resistance to bacterial wilt in ryegrass: insights into the genetic control of plant resistance and pathogen virulence; R. Koelliker et al.- 2.4. Mechanisms utilized within the IBERS diploid Lolium perenne L. forage grass breeding programmes to improve rumen nitrogen use efficiency; R. Hayes et al.- 2.5. Population genetics of the grass self-incompatibility system - Practical implications for grass breeding programmes; C. Manzanares et al.- 2.6. Use of molecular marker information in the construction of polycrosses to enhance yield in a Lolium perenne breeding programme; A. Ghesquiere et al.- 2.7. An analysis of chromosome pairing behaviour in newly synthesized alfalfa tetraploids by means of SSR markers; D. Rosellini et al.- 2.8. Genome constitution in selected and unselected plants of F2-F4 generations derived from an allotetraploid Festuca pratensis x Lolium perenne hybrid; Z. Zwierzykowski et al.- 2.9. Estimation of temporal allele frequency changes in ryegrass populations selected for axillary tiller development; G. Brazauskas et al.- 2.10. Understanding the genetic basis for slow plant-mediated proteolysis in Festulolium hybrids; S. O'Donovan et al.- 2.11. Chromosomal rearrangements in tetraploid introgressions of Lolium perenne/Festuca pratensis; T. Ksiazczyk et al.- 3.1. Establishing Chromosome Genomics in Forage and Turf Grasses; D. Kopecky et al.- 3.2. DArTFest DNA Array - Applications and Perspectives for Grass Genetics, Genomic s and Breeding; D. Kopecky et al.- 3.3. Using DArT markers in Festuca x Lolium breeding; M. Ghesquiere et al.- 3.4. Development of an SNP identification pipeline for highly heterozygous crops; T. Ruttink et al.- 3.5. First insights into the mitochondrial genome of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne); K. Diekmann et al.- 3.6. Quantifying early vigour and ground cover using digital image analysis; M. Cougnon et al.- 3.7. Expression of the Lolium perenne TERMINAL FLOWER 1 gene in alfalfa and tobacco; D. Rosellini et al.- 3.8. Morphological and molecular characterization of branching in red clover (Trifolium pratense); G. Cnops et al.- 4.1. Designing grass cultivars for droughts and floods; M. Humphreys et al.- 4.2. Variation and heritability of a-linolenic acid content and rumen escape protein fraction in fodder grass and clover; J. Baert et al.- 4.3. Similarities and differences in leaf proteome response to cold acclimation between Festuca pratensis and Lolium perenne; A. Kosmala et al.- 4.4. Multi-population QTL detection for flowering time, stem elongation and quality traits in Medicago truncatula; B. Julier et al.- 4.5. Role of RCT1 gene in anthracnose resistance in alfalfa; B. Julier et al.- 4.6. The EUCARPIA multi-site rust evaluation - results 2010; F.X. Schubiger et al.- 4.7. The main topics of resistance breeding in grasses in the Czeck Republic; B. Cagas, M. Svogodová.- 5.1. Origins of diploid Dactylis from the Canary Islands as determined by DNA sequencing; A. Stewart et al.- 5.2. Introduction and adaptation of Cynodon L. C. Rich species in Australia; M. Jewell et al.- 5.3. Variation in traits associated with carbon sequestration for a range of common amenity grass species; S. Duller et al.- 5.4. Suitability of different grass species for phytoremediation of soils polluted with heavy metals; G. Zurek et al.- 5.5. Targeting Lucerne cultivars to saline-soil environments; L. Pecetti et al.- 5.6. Comparison of seed mixtures for technical revegetation at high altitude ; L. Pecetti et al.- 5.7.