The effect of low plant density on response to selection for biomass production in switchgrass

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a model bioenergy species with a high biomass production from which renewable sources of fuel and electricity can be generated. The objective of this study was to perform divergent single-plant selection for biomass yield at low plant density, intermate the selected plants in polycrosses, and evaluate the performance of their half-sib (HS) progenies in sward and row plots. One thousand plants from Alamo and Kanlow populations were planted in unreplicated honeycomb trials with a plant spacing of 120 cm. Moving-ring selection was applied to select 15 high- and 15 low-yielding plants from each population. These were grown in separate polycrosses to create HS-families. Four HS-families from high- and 4 from low-yielding parents of Alamo and Kanlow, along with their bulks were evaluated for 3 years in sward plots with row spacing of 18 cm. Five HS-families from high- and five from low-yielding parents of Alamo and Kanlow were evaluated for 2 years in row plots spaced 76 cm along with their bulks. Overall, the row-plots had 20% higher biomass per unit area than the sward-plots. Across populations and plant densities, the highest-yielding HS-families produced between 2.0 and 9.3 t/ha more biomass than the lowest-yielding HS-families. The mean biomass of the HS-families from parents selected for high-yield was between 0.34 and 4 t/ha higher than the mean of the HS-families from the low-yielding parents. The annual response to selection for the mean and the bulk of the HS-families from the high yielding parents was 19 and 27% higher than the check. These results indicate that on average, high- and low-yielding parental genotypes were effectively selected from the two populations under low plant density.     

Molecular Markers for the Classification of Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) Germplasm and to Assess Genetic Diversity in Three Synthetic Switchgrass Populations

Information regarding the amount of genetic diversity is necessary to enhance the effectiveness of breeding programs and germplasm conservation efforts. Genetic variation between 21 switchgrass genotypes randomly selected from two lowland (‘Alamo’ and ‘Kanlow’) and one upland (‘Summer’) synthetic cultivars were estimated using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers. Comparison of 85 RFLP loci revealed 92% polymorphism between at least two genotypes from the upland and lowland ecotypes. Within ecotypes, the upland genotypes showed higher polymorphism than lowland genotypes (64% vs. 56%). ‘Kanlow’ had a lower percent of polymorphic loci than ‘Alamo’ (52% vs. 60%). Jaccard distances revealed higher genetic diversity between upland and lowland ecotypes than between genotypes within each ecotype. Hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward's minimum variance grouped the genotypes into two major clusters, one representing the upland group and the other the lowland group. Phylogenetic analysis of chloroplast non-coding region trnL (UAA) intron sequences from 34 switchgrass accessions (6 upland cultivars, 2 lowland cultivars, and 26 accessions of unknown affiliation) produced a neighbor-joining dendrogram comprised of two major clusters with 99% bootstrap support. All accessions grouped in the same cluster with the lowland cultivars (‘Alamo’ and ‘Kanlow’) had a deletion of 49 nucleotides. Phenotypic identification of greenhouse-grown plants showed that all accessions with the deletion are of the lowland type. The deletion in trnL (UAA) sequences appears to be specific to lowland accessions and should be useful as a DNA marker for the classification of upland and lowland germplasm.     

Candidate gene association with summer dormancy in tall fescue

Two main types of summer dormancy in tall fescue [Schedonorus arundinaceus (Schreb.) Dumort] are recognized, eco-dormancy and endo-dormancy. Endo-dormancy is a physiological response to environmental signals leading to slowing of metabolic activity in meristematic tissues and most likely controlled by circadian clock genes. Therefore, it is genetically inherited and allelic variation among and between summer-dormant and non-dormant varieties is expected. The main objective of this study was to explore the association between dormancy and various candidate genes. Twenty-three genes were amplified and sequenced in two dormant and two non-dormant checks. Nucleotide variants unique to each group were converted to kompetitive allele specific PCR markers and were tested on 52 dormant and non-dormant accessions. Five markers, from the genes CONSTANS and TERMINAL FLOWER showed significant associations (R² = 0.10 to 0.13, p < 0.05) with field phenotypic scores. These two genes are known to modulate meristem determinacy and growth, suggesting that meristem determinacy is probably one of the mechanisms involved in summer dormancy in tall fescue. Another five markers showed significant associations with the surrogate germination phenotype (R² = 0.13 to 0.20, p < 0.05). One marker originated from dormancy-associated MADS-box gene sequence, three markers originated from auxin response factors sequences, and one marker was derived from heat shock proteins sequences. These results confirm the implication of photoperiod and temperature in the regulation of summer dormancy. A selection index combining these markers may be valuable for the differentiation between dormant and non-dormant tall fescue genotypes.