Genetic Diversity Assessment in Turfgrass Species
Summary
Turfgrass species such as Cynodon, Festuca, Poa and Agrostis underpin global sports, amenity and environmental management. Genetic diversity assessment in these species enables the identification of novel alleles for stress tolerance, disease resistance and improved turf quality. The complex interplay of sexual reproduction, vegetative propagation and polyploidy presents challenges in defining population genetic structure. Recent advances in high-throughput sequencing and precise genotyping have transformed diversity studies, facilitating marker discovery, germplasm characterisation and informed breeding. Coupling molecular data with phenotypic and environmental measurements has yielded insights into adaptive variation along latitudinal and climatic gradients. An integrated understanding of genetic variation supports sustainable breeding strategies, conservation of germplasm resources and the optimisation of turfgrass performance under changing environmental conditions.
Research from Nature Portfolio
Recent studies have utilised genotyping-by-sequencing to construct a high-density linkage map for tetraploid Cynodon dactylon. The resulting map, comprising over 3 500 markers across 18 linkage groups, resolved homeologous chromosome pairs and revealed nested ancestral chromosome fusions underlying a 12-to-10 and 10-to-9 chromosome reduction in the bermudagrass genome. These findings provide a robust framework for whole-genome assembly and marker-assisted selection in cultivar development, offering novel insights into genome evolution within the Poaceae family.
Genetic Diversity Assessment in Turfgrass Species publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in genetic diversity assessment in turfgrass species across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP): A variation at a single nucleotide position in the genome among individuals used as a genetic marker.
Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS): A high-throughput method that simultaneously discovers and genotypes SNPs across multiple individuals by sequencing reduced-representation libraries.
Linkage map: A genetic map showing the relative positions of markers or genes on chromosomes based on recombination frequencies.
Population structure: The organisation of genetic variation into subgroups within a species, often influenced by geography, breeding history or reproductive biology.
Marker-assisted selection (MAS): A breeding approach that uses molecular markers linked to desirable traits to select individuals during cultivar development.
References
- Genetic diversity and population structure of bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) revealed by genotyping-by-sequencing. Frontiers in Plant Science (2023).
- Sequence-based genetic mapping of Cynodon dactylon Pers. reveals new insights into genome evolution in Poaceae. Communications Biology (2020).
- Genetic and QTL mapping in African bermudagrass. The Plant Genome (2021).
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