Location: Forage and Range Research
Project Number: 2080-21500-002-012-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Oct 1, 2021
End Date: Aug 31, 2025
Objective:
1: Assess turfgrass stands in cold climates to gain knowledge about the processes that lead to winterkill.
2: Increase our understanding of factors associated with winterkill to inform turfgrass management and breeding approaches.
3: Develop improved integrated snow mold management strategies.
4: Improve creeping bentgrass and perennial ryegrass germplasm for traits associated with superior winter hardiness.
5: Develop strategies for mitigation of and recovery from winter damage in turfgrass systems.
6: Educate stakeholders about winter stresses.
Approach:
ARS will be involved in Objective 4, by using inhouse reference genomes of both creeping bentgrass and perennial ryegrass to conduct genome wide association analyses for the traits of interest. Tassel and GWASpoly will be used as software programs for the association analyses, and have population structure data for inclusion as covariates.
