Journal
CROP & PASTURE SCIENCE
Volume 66, Issue 9, Pages 973-984Publisher
CSIRO PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1071/CP15070
Keywords
cultivar; heading date; herbage quality; linkage disequilibrium; pasture; polymorphism
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Funding
- Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources
- Geoffrey Gardiner Dairy Foundation
- Meat and Livestock Australia
- New Zealand Agriseeds, Christchurch, New Zealand, through the Dairy Futures Cooperative Research Centre
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Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) is one of the most important temperate forage grasses on a global basis. The present study estimated trait variance, inter-trait correlation and broad-sense heritability (H-2) for herbage yield, nutritive values and morphological characteristics of Italian ryegrass, and analysed associations between these traits and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. A field-based, spaced-plant nursery experiment was conducted to assess 960 genotypes from seven cultivars and breeding lines, in a randomised complete block design with four replicates. Significant correlations, broad ranges of variation and significant genotypic variance components were identified for 18 measured phenotypic traits. Moderate H-2 estimates (0.36-0.52) were obtained for nutritive values, compared with low to high H-2 estimates (0.20-0.69) for yield over five cuttings, and moderate to high H-2 estimates (0.40-0.78) for morphological traits. Within- and among-cultivar variation ranged from 40.0% to 95.1% and 4.9% to 60.0%, respectively, depending on different traits. Association analysis identified 65 significant SNP-trait gene associations involving multiple genomic regions, which warrant further validation. The implications of trait correlation and heritability for selection and improvement are discussed.
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