Grasses are among the most important and widely cultivated crops. Among them, ryegrasses (Lolium spp.) and fescues (Festuca spp.) provide high quality fodder for livestock, are used for turf and amenity purposes, and play a fundamental role in environment protection. Species from the two genera display complementary agronomic characteristics and are often grown in mixtures. Breeding efforts to combine desired features in single entities culminated with the production of Festuca × Lolium hybrids. The so called Festuloliums enjoy a considerable commercial success with numerous cultivars registered all over the world.
The main aim of our research is:
We analyzed large set of Festulolium cultivars using GISH (genomic in situ hybridization). This method enables vizualization of parental chromatin in intergeneric (interspecific) hybrids.
We analyzed chromosome pairing in allohexaploid F. arundinacea, its progenitors F. pratensis and F. glaucescens, and intergeneric hybrids L. multiflorum (2x) × F. arundinacea (6x) and L. multiflorum (4x) × F. glaucescens (4x).
We used androgenesis in vitro to reduce ploidy level in tetraploid hybrids (L. multiflorum × F. pratensis and L. perenne × F. pratensis) and tetraploid L. multiflorum. Obtained diploids have higher potential to be used as turf breeding material.
Using BAC clones and rDNAs, we have initiated the project on the identification of individual chromosomes of F. pratensis using cytogenetic markers. We identified 1G18 BAC clone and two rDNAs (45S-rDNA and 5S-rDNA) which enable the identification of all seven F. pratensis chromosomes.
In collaboration with Prof. Adam J. Lukaszewski (University of California, Riverside, USA), we developed single chromosome substitutions of F. pratensis Huds. into tetraploid L. multiflorum Lam. cv. ‘Mitos’.
We have developed partial F. pratensis (cv. LAURA) BAC library. This library involves 21888 clones (HindIII cloning site) with average insert size ~95 kb representing 1x genome coverage.
With the aim to facilitate high-throughput genome profiling and genetic mapping within the complex, we have developed a Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) array for five important species: F. pratensis, F. arundinacea, F. glaucescens, L. perenne and L. multiflorum. The DArTFest array contains 7680 probes derived from methyl-filtered genomic representations.
Nuclear genome size was estimated by flow cytometer in several grass species, mainly from Festuca-Lolium complex.
