654-6 Mapping Drought QTL in Tall Fescue Populations.

See more from this Division: C06 Forage and Grazinglands
See more from this Session: Innovations for Forage Grasses/Div. C06 Business Meeting

Tuesday, 7 October 2008: 3:00 PM
George R. Brown Convention Center, 381A

Francis Kirigwi1, Konstantin Chekhovskiy2, Andrew Hopkins2 and Malay Saha2, (1)Forage Improvement Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation Inc., Ardmore, OK
(2)Forage Improvement Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, OK
Abstract:
Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) growth and persistence are adversely affected by the hot-dry summers in the Southern Great Plains. Both forage yield and drought tolerance are difficult to select for because of large genotype-by-environment interactions. The objective of this project was to construct mapping populations, phenotype in multiple locations, genotype, and carry our quantitative trait analysis to identify markers for marker-assisted selection. Two mapping populations were constructed based on sets of contrasting genotypes for drought stress. One population was established one year prior to the other. Both populations were planted in two Oklahoma locations and in the greenhouse. In addition, one population was planted at Logan, UT. In the first year, the population did not experience drought-stress due high rainfall. Data were collected on biomass production both in the field and greenhouse. Transgressive segregation for biomass yield was recorded. The mapping population is being genotyped with framework microsatellite and STS markers obtained from a tall fescue reference map. Candidate drought-associated markers were added to the map. Details of the genotyping and phenotyping will be presented.

See more from this Division: C06 Forage and Grazinglands
See more from this Session: Innovations for Forage Grasses/Div. C06 Business Meeting