Agronimic varibility induction in Brachiaria brizantha induced by ethylmethanesulphonate (EMS)

• Grant number: 12/14241-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: January 01, 2013
• End date: June 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Nelson Barbosa Machado Neto
• Grantee: Nelson Barbosa Machado Neto
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias. Universidade do Oeste Paulista (UNOESTE). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ceci Castilho Custódio ; Luiz Gonzaga Esteves Vieira

Abstract

The meat and milk production in Brazil is made in about 172 million ha, with a large percentage of cultivated pasture grasses from Brachiaria genus. In Brazil, this genus is widely used as tropical forage for their adaptation to different soil and climatic conditions, and the most used species is the apomictic B. brizantha. Despite the importance of this forage, there are very few cultivars available in the market, resulting in extensive cultivated areas with few genotypes with commercial expression. Because they are apomictic, these plants are clones, featuring monocultures and implying high risk economic and environmental. The main strategy of breeding programs using Brachiaria germplasm derived from B. ruziziensis and sexual diploid accessions of B. brizantha. However, the possibility of obtaining hybrids with agronomic characteristics of elite cultivars have been widely adapted in Brazilian conditions is not high considering the barrier imposed by apomixis and the dependence of the occurrence and identification of a rare heterotic event. Therefore, the utilization of alternative means for obtaining improved B. brizantha germplasm to identify variation sources for plant breeding is essential. Thus, this project aims to establish a breeding program of B. brizantha with induced mutations by using the mutagenic agent EMS to form a pool of mutants phenotyped, and especially to obtain new cultivars in a shorter time in comparison with that required for conventional breeding programs of forage. (AU)