Kun Jun Han1, Andrew Hopkins1, German Spangenberg2, Natasha Petrovska2, and Zeng Yu Wang1. (1) The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Inc., 2510 Sam Noble Parkway, Ardmore, OK 73401, (2) Plant Biotechnology Center, Primary Industries Research Victoria and Molecular Plant Breeding CRC, La Trobe University , Bundoora, Victoria 3086, Bundoora, Australia
Information regarding gene flow in wind-pollinated outcrossing forage and turf grasses is essential for regulation and future releases of transgenic cultivars. Two independent experiments are being undertaken: pollen dispersal of tall fescue and Italian ryegrass, and hybridization potential between different grass species. Both experiments use transgenic tall fescue carrying marker genes, transgenic Italian ryegrass with down-regulated pollen allergen and transgenic Italian ryegrass carrying a marker gene, as the source of pollen. The pollen dispersal experiment used transgenic plants in a central plot, surrounded by exclosures containing recipient plants of the same genotype for each of the two test species. A total of 360 transgenic tall fescue and 360 each of the two transgenic ryegrass lines were used as pollen donors in the central plot. Wild-type tall fescue and Italian ryegrass were used as the recipients and grown in exclosures, with 4 plants from each species in one exclosure. The exclosures were 25 m apart and aligned in eight directions, up to a distance of 400 m from the central source plants. The experiment on hybridization potential was designed to investigate crossability between tall fescue, Italian ryegrass and 9 related species of Festuca and Lolium. A large number of samples will be analyzed for progenies collected from the experiments in the summer of 2005. The distance and frequency of pollen flow, the probability/frequency of cross hybridization and the effects of down-regulation of a major pollen allergen on pollen dispersal will be investigated.
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