Sustainable use of Genetic Diversity in Forage and Turf Breeding
This book is a collection of papers presented at the 2009 meeting of the Fodder Crops and Amenity grasses section of Eucarpia. It provides a unique source of information on the most recent results on genetic diversity and breeding in forage crops and turf
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Christian Huyghe Editor
Sustainable Use of Genetic Diversity in Forage and Turf Breeding
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Editor Christian Huyghe INRA - Poitou Charentes 86600 Lusignan France [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-8705-8 e-ISBN 978-90-481-8706-5 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-8706-5 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010925360 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Grassland produces feed for livestock, improves soil fertility and structure, protects water resources and may contribute to climate change mitigation through carbon storage and to biodiversity preservation. It simultaneously maintains sustainable economic outputs for farmers and provides ecosystem services. Turf similarly considerably contributes to our environment by adding beauty to our surroundings, providing a safe playing surface for sports and recreation. The species diversity present in most grasslands and turfs is a functional diversity contributing to the previously mentioned agronomic and environmental benefits. The species belong to different functional groups and the adequate species composition may maximise the agronomic performance through a higher production and a better quality and the environmental benefits through symbiotic nitrogen fixation or sources of pollen and nectar to pollinators. In a given grassland or turf, the genetic diversity available in each variety contributes to this economic and environmental performance, but also to the stability of these performances including the stability of the resistance against pathogens and pests. Natural grasslands share many species with the sown swards. They may be regarded as favourable sites for in situ preservation of genetic diversity as well as valuable sources of diversity for breeding. Breeding programs in forages have resulted in large genetic improvements in forage yield, quality and disease resistance. Similarly, in turf, large improvements were achieved in aesthetic value and resistance to diseases. Registration criteria and systems play a key role to validate these improvements and to release them to the market for the benefit of the end-users. Resources available for breeders become increasingly large, with more access to better characterised materials, rapid and accurate methods for phenotyping and genotyping, expanding molecular resources, bioinformatics and computational resources. This huge amount of resources requires to clearly defining breeding objectives and optimum variety structure and to integrating phenotyp
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