Paspalum genetic breeding for intensive production systems in São Paulo State: accessions characterization

• Grant number: 11/20558-0
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2012
• End date: January 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Pastures and Forage Crops
• Principal Investigator: Patricia Menezes Santos
• Grantee: Patricia Menezes Santos
• Host Institution: Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA). Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento (Brasil). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Alberto Carlos de Campos Bernardi ; Alessandra Pereira Fávero ; Alexandre Berndt ; Alexandre Mendonça Pedroso ; Ana Rita de Araujo Nogueira ; Beatriz Lempp ; Bianca Baccili Zanotto Vigna ; Francisco Humberto Dübbern de Souza ; Frederico de Pina Matta ; Gilberto Batista de Souza ; José Ricardo Macedo Pezzopane ; Marcos Rafael Gusmão ; Mário Massayuki Inomoto ; Nelson Sidnei Massola Júnior ; Rodolfo Godoy ; Teresa Cristina Alves ; Waldomiro Barioni Júnior

Abstract

Brazil has 180 million hectares that is used for livestock production. In this area, 60 to 80% are used for pastures with exotic species of which more than 85% belong to the genus Brachiaria, showing the genetic vulnerability of our livestock pasture system. Considered by many authors as the most important genus of Poaceae family in the Americas, the genus Paspalum presents the largest number of Brazilian native species of good forage value. Because they are native, they offer lower risks of causing ecological imbalance by introducing unknown diseases and pests in crops when used as extensive pastures and lawns. Although Brazil is among the countries with the greatest genetic diversity of Paspalum that are available for crop research, its use is still incipient. The genetic diversity of species, which is the basic premise for improvement, can be estimated by many aspects as agronomic, morpho-anatomical and molecular characterization, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, which can generate a lot of information about the potential of plants for genetic improvement with the aim to obtain new forage varieties. This proposal aim to evaluate accessions of Paspalum of the Germplasm Bank that has not been evaluated yet for agronomic characters, resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, molecular, morpho-anatomical and reproductive characterization, and poliploidyze sexual accession to use them in breeding programs per se or as progenitors in future crosses. (AU)