Plant & Animal Genome IX Conference

Workshop: Forage & Turfgrass
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ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF GENES FROM THE PISTILS OF APOMICTIC BUFFELGRASS.

¹ Dept. of Soil & Crop Sciences, Texas A&M Univ., College Station, TX 77843-2474

² USDA-ARS, Southern Crops Research Laboratory, College Station, TX 77843-2474

³ Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602

⁴ DuPont Agricultural Products, Nutrition and Health, Stine 614-163, Newark, DE 19714

⁵ Sorghum Institute of Shanzi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yuei, Shanxi, China

Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare (L.) Link syn Cenchrus ciliaris L.) is an apomictic C₄ grass that is used for pasture throughout the dry tropics. Although most buffelgrass genotypes reproduce via obligate apomixis (apospory), sexual and mixed (facultative) reproductive types are also found within the species. Hybridization of obligate sexual and apomictic genotypes allows for the recovery of full-sib genotypes that are either sexual or reproduce via apomixis. The long-term goal of this project is to utilize full-sib F₁ progeny of buffelgrass to elucidate the molecular basis of apospory and other economically important traits in perennial forage grasses. For this research, cDNA libraries were developed from pistil and spikelet tissues of apomictic and sexual genotypes of buffelgrass. A modified virtual subtraction procedure was used and apomictic pistil cDNAs were screened initially using leaf cDNAs to isolate pistil specific genes from an obligate apomictic buffelgrass genotype. Results of Northern Analysis, sequence homology, in situ expression patterns, and genetic mapping data in buffelgrass will be discussed.