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CROP BREEDING, GENETICS & CYTOLOGY

Selection for Persistence in Endophyte-Free Kentucky 31 Tall Fescue

^a Dep. Crop and Soil Sciences, Univ. of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-7272
^b USDA-ARS, Coastal Plain Exp. Stn., Tifton, GA 31793-0748

* Corresponding author (jbouton{at}arches.uga.edu)

‘Kentucky 31’, released in 1943, remains the most widely used tall fescue cultivar (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.). The fungal endophyte, Neotyphodium coenophialum (Morgan-Jones & Gams.) Glenn, Bacon & Hanlin comb. nov., which naturally infects Kentucky 31, enhances survival and competitiveness of the grass. However, cattle grazing forage from endophyte-infected (E+) Kentucky 31 suffer from fescue toxicity because of alkaloids in the forage. A possible strategy to reduce fescue toxicity is cultivar improvement to develop more persistent endophyte-free (E-) cultivars. The objective of our research was to assess the results of selection with different levels of stress (grazing and competition with bermudagrass, Cynodon dactylon L.) to increase persistence and competitiveness within E- Kentucky 31. Populations were selected in the following environments: (i) seeded into bermudagrass and grazed with continuously stocked beef cattle, (ii) seeded into bermudagrass and clipped intermittently with a mower, (iii) seeded into tilled soil and grazed with continuously stocked beef cattle, and (iv) seeded into tilled soil and clipped intermittently with a mower. Populations were developed from the best surviving plants in each selection condition and tested for grazing persistence and competitiveness with bermudagrass. Grazing, especially when combined with bermudagrass competition, created the greatest reduction of persistence. No selected population was found to survive better than E- Kentucky 31 even when tested in the same conditions used during its selection. The E+ checks were the most persistent entries in all testing conditions. These experiments indicate that selection within E- Kentucky 31 for improved persistence will be difficult and may need to be explored on other E- tall fescue germplasm sources, but another strategy may be reinfection with non-toxic endophyte strains.

Abbreviations: E+, endophyte-infected • E-, endophyte-free

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