Abstract
Most of the perennial ryegrass cultivars are synthetics composed of 4–20 or more parents. Using component genotypes with a good specific combining ability (SCA) in a synthetic variety may reduce the number of parents and exploit heterosis without inbreeding depression. Determining SCA by carrying out and testing pair crosses is laborious. Is it worthwhile to do all this work?
We carried out a diallel cross with 10 genotypes of tetraploid perennial ryegrass. The F1 seeds were multiplied to F1² seeds. We determined the dry matter yield of the F1² populations in a field trial for 2 years. The results showed that the genotypes with the best general combining ability produced the best F1² progenies. The best 3 F1² progenies were used to build a synthetic variety that is performing very well in official variety list trials.
This example shows that the use of pair crosses in synthetic variety development of tetraploid perennial ryegrass varieties is valuable but not necessarily superior to other less laborious methods like polycross or topcross where GCA is determined.
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References
Baert, J., Ghesquiere, A., Muylle, H. 2008. Comparison between two breeding methods in tetraploid Lolium perenne: polycross versus F2 (pp. 153–155). In: Lübberstedt, T., Studer, B., Graugaard, S. (ed.), Proc. XXVIIth Eucarpia Symposium on Improvement of Fodder Crops and Amenity Grasses. August 19–23, 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Muylle, H. 2003. Genetic analysis of crown rust resistance in ryegrasses (Lolium spp.) using molecular markers. PhD thesis in Applied Biological Sciences, University of Ghent (Belgium).
Tamaki, H., Yoshizawa, A., Fujii, H., Sato, K. 2007. Modified synthetic varieties: a breeding method for forage crops to exploit specific combining ability. Plant Breed. 126:95–100.
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Baert, J., Ghesquiere, A. (2010). F1² Performance of Tetraploid Perennial Ryegrass on the Basis of the Composition of a Synthetic Variety. In: Huyghe, C. (eds) Sustainable use of Genetic Diversity in Forage and Turf Breeding. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8706-5_77
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8706-5_77
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