Ebook: 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.

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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.

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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.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
What Global and/or European Agriculture Will Need from Grasslands and Grassland Breeding over the Next 10–15 Years for a Sustainable Agriculture....Pages 3-18
Front Matter....Pages 19-19
Marker Assisted Selection Made Cheap and Easy....Pages 21-27
Genome-Wide SNP Marker Development and QTL Identification for Genomic Selection in Red Clover....Pages 29-36
Breeding for Resistance to Bacterial Wilt in Ryegrass: Insights into the Genetic Control of Plant Resistance and Pathogen Virulence....Pages 37-46
Mechanisms Utilised Within the IBERS Diploid Lolium perenne L. Forage Grass Breeding Programmes to Improve Rumen Nitrogen Use Efficiency....Pages 47-53
Population Genetics of the Grass Self-incompatibility System—Practical Implications for Grass Breeding Programmes....Pages 55-61
Use of Molecular Marker Information in the Construction of Polycrosses to Enhance Yield in a Lolium perenne Breeding Programme....Pages 63-67
An Analysis of Chromosome Pairing Behaviour in Newly Synthesized Alfalfa Tetraploids by Means of SSR Markers....Pages 69-74
Genome Constitution in Selected and Unselected Plants of F2–F4 Generations Derived from an Allotetraploid Festuca pratensis ? Lolium perenne Hybrid....Pages 75-79
Estimation of Temporal Allele Frequency Changes in Ryegrass Populations Selected for Axillary Tiller Development....Pages 81-87
Understanding the Genetic Basis for Slow Plant-Mediated Proteolysis in Festulolium Hybrids....Pages 89-95
Front Matter....Pages 97-101
Establishing Chromosome Genomics in Forage and Turf Grasses....Pages 103-103
DArTFest DNA Array—Applications and Perspectives for Grass Genetics, Genomics and Breeding....Pages 105-113
Using DArT Markers in Festuca ? Lolium Breeding....Pages 115-119
Development of an SNP Identification Pipeline for Highly Heterozygous Crops....Pages 121-129
First Insights into the Mitochondrial Genome of Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium perenne)....Pages 131-139
Quantifying Early Vigour and Ground Cover using Digital Image Analysis....Pages 141-145
Expression of the Lolium perenne Terminal Flower 1 Gene in Alfalfa and Tobacco....Pages 147-153
Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Branching in Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)....Pages 155-160
Front Matter....Pages 161-167
Designing Grass Cultivars for Droughts and Floods....Pages 169-169
Variation and Heritability of ?-Linolenic Acid Content and Rumen Escape Protein Fraction in Fodder Grass and Clover....Pages 171-179
Role of the RCT1 Gene in Anthracnose Resistance in Alfalfa....Pages 181-188
The EUCARPIA Multi-site Rust Evaluation—Results 2010....Pages 189-195
The Main Topics of Resistance Breeding in Grasses in the Czech Republic....Pages 197-202
Front Matter....Pages 203-208
Origins of Diploid Dactylis from the Canary Islands as Determined by DNA Sequencing....Pages 209-217
Introduction and Adaptation of Cynodon L. C. Rich Species in Australia....Pages 219-222
Variation in Traits Associated with Carbon Sequestration for a Range of Common Amenity Grass Species....Pages 223-223
Suitability of Grass Species for Phytoremediation of Soils Polluted with Heavy-metals....Pages 225-229
Targeting Lucerne Cultivars to Saline-soil Environments....Pages 231-237
Comparison of Seed Mixtures for Technical Revegetation at High Altitude....Pages 239-244
Genetic Diversity for Cell Wall Digestibility in a Diverse Lolium perenne Collection....Pages 245-248
Variability Among Accessions of Forage Vetch for Basic Agronomic and Morphological Traits under Agro-Ecological Conditions of Serbia....Pages 249-253
Genetic Variation of Root Characteristics and Deep Root Production in Perennial Ryegrass Cultivars Contrasting in Field Persistency....Pages 255-260
The Study of Similarities Among Medicago sativa L. Accessions....Pages 261-267
Genetic Structure and Agronomic Value of Italian Lucerne Landraces: A Synopsis....Pages 269-273
Characterization and Evaluation of Genebank Accessions as a Pre-selection Instrument for Plant Breeding Objectives and Strategies....Pages 275-281
Front Matter....Pages 283-287
Exploitation of ‘Site-Specific’ Alpine Grass Germplasm for Revegetation at High Altitude....Pages 289-294
Front Matter....Pages 295-299
The Impact of Perennial Ryegrass Variety Throughout the Growing Season on in vitro Rumen Methane Output....Pages 301-305
Origin and Yield of European Perennial Ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) Varieties in Ireland....Pages 223-223
Yield Dynamics and Quality in White Clover and Perennial Ryegrass in the First cut of the Establishment Year....Pages 307-311
Influence of Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria on Alfalfa, Medicago sativa L. yield by Inoculation of a Preceding Italian Ryegrass, Lolium multiflorum Lam....Pages 313-313
Optimal Plant Type of Pea for Mixed Cropping with Cereals....Pages 315-321
Dry Matter Recovery and Aerobic Stability of Maize Whole-Crop, Cob and Stover Silages—Harvest Date and Cultivar Effects....Pages 323-326
Performance of Forage Soya Bean (Glycine max) Cultivars in the Northern Balkans....Pages 327-332
Effects of Trinexapac-Ethyl (Moddus) on Seed Yields and Its Quality of Eleven Temperate Grass Species....Pages 333-339
The Chemical Composition of a Range of Forage Grasses Grown Under Two Nitrogen Fertiliser Inputs and Harvested at Different Stages of Maturity....Pages 341-346
NIRS Calibration Strategies for the Botanical Composition of Grass-Clover Mixtures....Pages 347-351
Comparison of LOCAL and GLOBAL Calibration Models to Predict Ryegrass Quality Using Near Infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy....Pages 353-358
Grass for Biogas Production—Anaerobic Methane Production from Five Common Grassland Species at Sequential Stages of Maturity....Pages 359-363
Back Matter....Pages 365-370
....Pages 371-375