NEWS
Botany, 120(2), 183–194. https://
d o i . o rg / 1 0 . 1 0 9 3 / a o b / m c x 0 7 9
2. Buckley, H. L., Case, B. S., Zimmer-
man, J. K., Thompson, J., Myers,
J. A., & Ellison, A. M. (2016). Using
codispersion analysis to quantify
and understand spatial patterns in
species-environment relationships.
New Phytologist, 211(2), 735–749.
https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.13934
3. De Souza, W. R., Martins, P. K.,
Freeman, J., Pellny, T. K., Michael-
son, L. V., Sampaio, B. L., … Moli-
nari, H. B. C. (2018). Suppression
of a single BAHD gene in Setaria
viridis causes large, stable de-
creases in cell wall feruloylation
and increases biomass digestibil-
ity. New Phytologist, 218(1), 81–93.
https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.14970
Figure 1: Forage grass flower, Brachiaria. Photo: Pat Heslop-Harrison
genotyping ‘platform’ which will speed
up the methods for choosing plants to
act as parents for producing improved
varieties. Genotyping platform technol-
ogy is revolutionising plant breeding
and our project will enable us to ap-
ply genotyping and molecular assisted
breeding technology to tropical forage
grasses.
As Dr Ruben Echeverria, Director Gen-
eral of CIAT, has written, “Livestock
provides much of the protein needed
for the balanced nutrition of the world’s
population and is an important part of
the economy in rural areas. At the same
time, it is usually associated with envi-
ronmental problems such as deforesta-
tion and high emissions of greenhouse
gases.
We believe that sustainable intensifi-
cation of livestock production will re-
duce the environmental impact while
responding to the requirements of
protein food of a growing population
worldwide.” Professor Alison Goodall,
Head of Department of Genetics and
Genome Biology in the University of
Leicester, UK, adds “The proposed re-
search aligns strongly with the major
themes of food security and research
that supports the economic develop-
ment of developing countries, gener-
ating solutions to global challenges
through world-class research and im-
pact activities.”
Breeding better crops is a long-term un-
dertaking, and CIAT already has breed-
ing pipelines for tropical forage grasses.
Our project is designed to supplement
and accelerate breeding by exploiting
31
wide biodiversity and the latest cost-
efficient, genomic technologies, lead-
ing via improvements in forage grasses,
to increased food security, reduction of
rural poverty, and efficient, sustainable
use of land as pasture.
Acknowledgements
This research is funded by the UK Bio-
technology and Biological Sciences Re-
search Council through the RCUK-CIAT
Newton-Caldas Fund Sustainable Tropi-
cal Agricultural Systems Programme
pump-priming award “Exploiting bio-
diversity in Brachiaria/Panicum tropi-
cal forage grasses using genetics to
improve livelihoods and sustainability”
BB/R022828/1.
The project is a collaboration between
co-PIs Dr Rowan Mitchell (Rothamsted
Research), Dr Jill Thompson (Centre for
Ecology & Hydrology CEH), Dr Jose de
Vega (Earlham Institute) and Pat Heslop-
Harrison (University of Leicester) with
particular contributions to the research
from Dr Paulina Tomazewska (Leicester)
and Dr Till Pellny (Rothamsted). The
partners from CIAT involved in the re-
search are Dr Michael Peters, Dr Valhe-
ria Castiblanco, Dr Jacobo Arango, Dr
Stefan Burkart, Dr Lou Verchot, Dr Joe
Tohme, and Dr Juan Andres Cardoso.
Further reading
1. Alix, K., Gérard, P. R., Schwar-
zacher, T., & Heslop-Harrison, J.
S. (Pat). (2017). Polyploidy and
interspecific hybridization: part-
ners for adaptation, speciation
and evolution in plants. Annals of
4. Hogan, J. A., Zimmerman, J. K.,
Uriarte, M., Turner, B. L., & Thomp-
son, J. (2016). Land-use history
augments environment-plant com-
munity relationship strength in a
Puerto Rican wet forest. Journal of
Ecology, 104(5), 1466–1477. https://
doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12608
5. Hyde, L. S., Pellny, T. K., Freeman,
J., Michaelson, L. V., Simister, R.,
McQueen-Mason, S. J., & Mitchell,
R. A. C. (2018). Response of cell-wall
composition and RNA-seq tran-
scriptome to methyl-jasmonate in
Brachypodium distachyon callus.
Planta, 248(5), 1213–1229.https://
doi.org/10.1007/s00425-018-2968-9
6. Kosina, R., & Tomaszewska, P. (2015).
Variability of breeding system, cary-
opsis microstructure and germina-
tion in annual and perennial spe-
cies of the genus Brachypodium P.
Beauv. Genetic Resources and Crop
Evolution, 63(6), 1003–1021. https://
doi.org/10.1007/s10722-015-0297-4
7. Santos, F. C., Guyot, R., do Valle, C.
B., Chiari, L., Techio, V. H., Heslop-
Harrison, P., & Vanzela, A. L. L. (2015).
Chromosomal distribution and
evolution of abundant retrotrans-
posons in plants: gypsy elements
in diploid and polyploid Brachiaria
forage grasses. Chromosome Re-
search, 23(3), 571–582. https://doi.
org/10.1007/s10577-015-9492-6
8. Worthington, M., Heffelfinger, C.,
Bernal, D., Quintero, C., Zapata, Y.
P., Perez, J. G., … Tohme, J. (2016).
A Parthenogenesis Gene Candi-
date and Evidence for Segmental
Allopolyploidy in Apomictic Brachi-
aria decumbens. Genetics, 203(3),
1117–1132. https://doi.org/10.1534/
genetics.116.190314
Grassroots
Vol 19
No 1
March 2019