Advances in DNA Markers and Breeding for Warm- and Cool-Season Turfgrasses

摘要

Warm- and cool-season turfgrasses are used on lawns, parks, sport fields, golf courses, and along highways, and have many benefits, including erosion control, soil carbon sequestration, water filtration, heat dissipation, and they provide aesthetic value. Approximately 163 800km2 of land is cultivated with turfgrass in the continental United States: an area three times larger than that of irrigated corn. Although turfgrasses face a myriad of challenges, including abiotic and biotic stresses, molecular breeding is in its infancy as compared to other widely planted crops. This chapter discusses the current state of molecular markers in warm- and cool-season turfgrasses, and looks at how they have been used from diversity studies to marker-trait association analyses. Next-generation sequencing technologies can only help increase the number of marker-trait associations identified as well as identify the genes involved in particular traits, but this information must be used in the development of the latest releases of cultivars if it is to have true impact.