Diverged subpopulations in tropical Urochloa (Brachiaria) forage species indicate a role for facultative apomixis and varying ploidy in their population structure and evolution.

Background: Urochloa (syn. Brachiaria) is a genus of tropical grasses sown as forage feedstock, particularly in marginal soils. Here we aimed to clarify the genetic diversity and population structure in Urochloa species to understand better how population evolution relates to ploidy level and occurrence of apomictic reproduction.

Genome-wide association study for deoxynivalenol production and aggressiveness in wheat and rye head blight by resequencing 92 isolates of Fusarium culmorum.

Background: Fusarium culmorum is an important pathogen causing head blight of cereals in Europe. This disease is of worldwide importance leading to reduced yield, grain quality, and contamination by mycotoxins. These mycotoxins are harmful for livestock and humans; therefore, many countries have strict regulatory limits for raw materials and processed food.

Allele mining in diverse accessions of tropical grasses to improve forage quality and reduce environmental impact.

Background And Aims: The C4Urochloa species (syn. Brachiaria) and Megathyrsus maximus (syn. Panicum maximum) are used as pasture for cattle across vast areas in tropical agriculture systems in Africa and South America.

Flow Cytometry-Based Determination of Ploidy from Dried Leaf Specimens in Genomically Complex Collections of the Tropical Forage Grass s. l.

(including , and some ) tropical grasses are native to Africa and are now, after selection and breeding, planted worldwide, particularly in South America, as important forages with huge potential for further sustainable improvement and conservation of grasslands. We aimed to develop an optimized approach to determine ploidy of germplasm collection of this tropical forage grass group using dried leaf material, including approaches to collect, dry and preserve plant samples for flow cytometry analysis. Our methods enable robust identification of ploidy levels (coefficient of variation of G0/G1 peaks, CV, typically <5%).