Author
|
Submitted to: Grassland Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal Publication Acceptance Date: 8/22/2005 Publication Date: 12/1/2005 Citation: Anderson, W. F. 2005. Development of a forage bermudagrass (Cynodon sp.) core collection. Grassland Science 51:305-308. Interpretive Summary: A world collection of over 600 bermudagrass accessions is maintained in Tifton, GA. Plant introductions (PIs) have proven to be extremely valuable in the genetic improvement of bermudagrass forage and turf. Bermudagrass also has potential as a bio-fuel feedstock for conversion to ethanol and co-products. In order to adequately assess chemical composition or stress tolerance of a wide array of genetically diverse material it is necessary to reduce samples to a number conducive to replicated multi-location evaluation. The objectives of this study were to develop and access a bermudagrass core collection using plant phenotype and ploidy levels. A subset of 168 entries was selected to represent diversity from eleven major clusters of the original data. Nearly half (48%) of the most disease resistant accessions would have been identified by screening only 16% of the entire collection by using indicators from the core collection. The core collection of bermudagrass will be valuable for screening accessions for stress tolerance, and chemical compositional traits if these results are indicative of improvement of efficiency. Technical Abstract: A world collection of 600 bermudagrass (Cynodon sp.) accessions is maintained in Tifton, GA. Extensive and intensive chemical and cell wall analyses of the collection need to be performed to better assess the potential of lignocellulosic conversion to bio-fuels as well as to screen for abiotic stress tolerance in marginal environments for soil and water conservation efforts. A core collection would allow us to narrow the initial entries for these analyses. The objectives of this study were to develop and evaluate a core collection of bermudagrass using plant phenotypic data and to determine the efficiency of the core for discovering disease and insect resistance. During the spring and summer of 2003, 14 phenotypic characteristics were measured, standardized and subjected to cluster analysis. A subset of 168 entries was selected to represent diversity from eleven major clusters of the original data. Nine additional phenotypic traits from fall re-growth and from reestablishment of the nursery in 2004 provided increased variability when subjected to a second cluster analysis. Though most entries were repositioned among the clusters with the additional data, the previously selected core collection continued to represent the full diversity of the entire collection. Nearly half (48%) of the most disease resistant accessions would have been identified by screening only 16% of the entire collection by using indicators from the core collection. The core collection of bermudagrass will be valuable for screening accessions for stress tolerance, and chemical compositional traits if these results are indicative of improvement of efficiency. |
