Breeding lucerne for persistence

By J. Bouton. Crop and Pasture Science, 2012

94 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract. Cultivated lucerne is the most widely grown forage legume in pastoral agriculture. Persistence is critical for most pastoral production systems and its definition includes concepts of productivity, but maintenance of adequate plant numbers is essential. There were three important eras in lucerne persistence breeding: species introduction leading to local varieties and land races (adaptation), development of multiple pest-resistant, autumn dormancy-specific cultivars, and introducing complex traits and the use of biotechnologies. Today’s persistent cultivar needs, at a minimum, adaptation, proper autumn dormancy, and targeted pest resistances. Adding complex, ‘persistence-limiting’ traits to these minimum base traits, such as tolerance to grazing, acid, aluminum-toxic soils, and drought, is successfully being achieved via traditional selection, but biotechnologies and inter-specific hybridisations are also being employed in some cases. The main issues around biotechnologies are public perception and regulatory issues which continue to hamper transgene deployment while genetic marker programs need to lower costs and concentrate on successful application. There is not one persistent ‘ideotype’ that will fill all situations, but specific ones need to be developed and targeted for geographies such as the subtropics. Finally, breeders need to understand what persistence traits lucerne producers are willing to pay a premium to obtain.

Subfields: Agronomy and Crop Science, Forestry, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/63fddf8935f355b26740f313a2c529092ad261aa

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Agronomy and Crop Science

1. B. Barrett
2. A. Marshall
3. P. O'kiely
4. E. C. Brummer
5. P. Annicchiarico
6. B. Julier

In Plant Science

1. P. Annicchiarico
2. B. Barrett
3. A. Marshall
4. B. Julier
5. E. C. Brummer
6. Michael D. Casler

Citations in the corpus

• Factors affecting the potential contributions of N2 fixation by legumes in Australian pasture systems (2012, background): “Similar progress has been reported in the USA using traditional breeding methods and transgenic approaches despite the genetic complexity of the acid-tolerance trait (Bouton 2012).”
• Achievements and Challenges in Improving Temperate Perennial Forage Legumes (2015, background): “, ‘Alfagraze’) have been developed by selecting grazing tolerant plants from highly productive, multiple-pest resistant germplasm, selecting survivors from stands which have thinned appreciably after being grazed intensively by beef cattle (rather than selecting based on an inferred grazing tolerant”
• Forage Legumes for Grazing and Conserving in Ruminant Production Systems (2015, background): “There has been particular interest in breeding M. sativa for greater persistence under grazing in many regions worldwide and recent reviews have shown that grazing tolerance can be combined with, highyielding and multiple-pest-resistant traits (Bouton, 2012; Smith et al., 2000).”