Abstract
Festuca ovina L. is a fine fescue that is used as a low-input turfgrass. The ploidy levels of F. ovina accessions held by the USDA National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) are unknown, limiting the use of the germplasm in breeding programs. The objective of this study was to determine DNA content and estimate ploidy of these accessions. Among 127 accessions, we identified a wide range of ploidy levels from diploid to octoploid. We also found the accessions with higher ploidy levels usually had larger seed size. These results will be informative to plant breeders and researchers using germplasm from the F. ovina collection and point to challenges in maintaining polyploid, outcrossing germplasm seed stocks in common nurseries.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2757-2767 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Journal | Crop Science |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Sep 1 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank Dr. Ya Yang at the University of Minnesota for discussion about polyploid genome evolution. The authors would also like to thank Drs. Adrian Hegeman and Cory Hirsch at the University of Minnesota for reviewing this manuscript and providing comments and feedback. This research is funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Specialty Crop Research Initiative under award number 2017‐51181‐27222.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Dr. Ya Yang at the University of Minnesota for discussion about polyploid genome evolution. The authors would also like to thank Drs. Adrian Hegeman and Cory Hirsch at the University of Minnesota for reviewing this manuscript and providing comments and feedback. This research is funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Specialty Crop Research Initiative under award number 2017-51181-27222.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Crop Science published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Crop Science Society of America