| The Forage Improvement Division is a forage
improvement group developing new varieties for farmers and ranchers by
integrating applied plant breeding and molecular biology. The division
focuses on developing perennial grasses and legumes for use in the
southern Great Plains and beyond. Major efforts are underway in breeding
tall fescue, alfalfa, white clover, hardinggrass, tall wheatgrass and
bermudagrass, including, when appropriate, the use of transformation and
genomics biotechnologies.
Significant Facts about the Division:
•Newest Foundation
operating division — founded in 1997.
•Currently building an 85,000-square-foot
research facility to house the division.
•Host of the 2003 International Symposium on
Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf.
Accomplishments
•Developed tall fescue lines with reduced
lignin concentration and higher digestibility.
•Recorded the value of fungal endophytes to
improve tall fescue persistence in the region.
•To date, developed more than 30,000 expressed
sequence tags (ESTs) in tall fescue for public use.
Current Work
In collaboration with the Agricultural and Plant
Biology divisions, Forage Improvement actively pursues projects that
utilize basic science to develop improved varieties that can be used
in agricultural practice, such as:
•An improved tall fescue containing a novel
endophyte that is well adapted to the region. Such a grass would
help improve the economics of livestock production through lower
planting costs and could benefit the environment by reducing the
risk of soil erosion.
•A bloat-safe alfalfa with resistance to cotton
root rot useful for hay production and direct grazing. Alfalfa is
the most widely used forage legume in the world,
and a cultivar with these traits will positively impact producers in
the region.
•An adapted white clover cultivar based on
naturalized ecotypes. Ecotypes of this important cool-season legume
are found throughout the region. These are proving useful as a
parental base for variety development.
•Bermudagrass, tall fescue and tall wheatgrass
with higher digestibility and reduced lignin concentration.
Reduction in lignin concentration and an
increase in digestibility would greatly improve the nutritive value
of these widely used grasses.
Collaboration
•White clover and alfalfa improvement with
University of Georgia
•Fungal endophyte research with AgResearch (New
Zealand)
•Simple sequence repeat (SSR) mapping in tall
fescue with USDA-ARS and Michigan State University
•Improving phosphate acquisition in forage with
Boyce Thompson Institute
•Field testing with Texas Tech, Texas A&M
and Oklahoma State universities
For Details See - http://www.noble.org/ForgBiot/index.html |