FieldScience | By Leah A. Brilman, PhD
Turfgrass
breeding for sports
T
URFGRASS BREEDERS
may have a more difficult job
than most other plant breeders. For the most part they
deal with more than one
species, usually at least four major species
and many minor ones, and a vast geographic area for each species. What also
complicates the breeding for the seed
propagated species is breeders must breed
at the same time for turf quality, disease
resistance and other characteristics for turf
12 SportsTurf | June 2013
performance and also for seed yield.
Most turfgrass species are cross-pollinated, self-incompatible species, which
means the same plant cannot be the mother
and the father. This makes development of
inbred lines for hybrids or seed propagated
varieties with one genotype unfeasible.
Breeders must cross similar plants together
to start the breeding process selected for the
characteristics desired in the new cultivar.
This means traditional breeding operates as
a form of population improvement, with
SELECTED PERENNIAL RYEGRASS plants
placed into an isolation cage for crossing.
each individual seed in a variety genetically
related to but distinct from others. By taking the portion of the population with the
best of a certain characteristic, darkest
green, highest stress tolerance, least disease,
and crossing these together the breeder
moves the mean of that characteristic up.
The selected plants must still match for
Improvement of turfgrass
varieties is dependent on
being able to efficiently
screen large numbers of
plants for the desired
characteristic(s).
www.sportsturfonline.com
