GRASP: Development of rye grass allele-specific markers for sustainable grassland improvement
The RTD project GRASP (EU framework V) is coordinated by the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences (Thomas Lübberstedt). The project proposal was submitted in October 2001, finally granted September 2002, and started October 1, 2002. A kick-offmeeting was held at DLF Trifolium A/S in Store Heddinge, November 25 and 26, 2002.The total eligible costs of this 4-year project are 5,9 Mio. € with a maximum EU contribution of 3,2 Mio. €.The partnership includes eight public institutions and one commercial partner from eight countries (contact persons and country code in brackets): 1) The Danish Institute ofAgricultural Sciences (Thomas Lübberstedt, DK), 2) DLF Trifolium A/S (Klaus K.Nielsen, DK), 3) Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research (MervynHumphreys, UK), 4) Plant Research International B.V. (Oene Dolstra, NL), 5)Agricultural Research Centre – Gent (Isabel Roldan-Ruiz, BE), 6) University ofHohenheim (Ulrich Posselt, D), 7) Lithuanian Institute of Agriculture (IzoldaPasakinskiene, LT), Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (Philippe Barre, F),and 9) Agricultural University of Norway (Odd Arne Rognli, NO). All partners exceptUniversity of Hohenheim (assistant contractor) are full contractors. GRASP assembles the leading European institutions in forage grass breeding and genetics.GRASP was initiated in Flakkebjerg June 28/29, 2001, where already seven of the nine partners participated. The major conclusion was that compared to the agronomic significance of forage grasses, especially Lolium perenne, the development of modern breeding tools such as DNA markers is far behind other crops like wheat, barley, maize,canola, potato, and sugar beet, which are targets in national genome initiatives in France(Genoplante), UK (Garnet), and Germany (GABI). The aim of GRASP is to start filling this gap.The major topic of GRASP is the development of “functional” allele-specific markers associated with relevant traits in L. perenne such as forage quality, nitrogen use efficiency, disease resistance, and abiotic stress tolerance. More than 100 candidate genesfor these traits will be isolated and the respective alleles of 20 genotypes (Lolium test set = LTS) will be sequenced in order to derive allele-specific DNA markers. In parallel, theLTS will be used to develop synthetic populations to be propagated under divergent selection for the different traits of interest over two generations. The frequency shift ofDNA marker alleles over generations will be monitored and used to validate candidategene – trait associations. In addition to markers and populations, genomic tools will be developed including a BAC library for L. perenne, subtracted cDNA libraries, microarrays for expression profiling, and genetic reference maps. Information generatedin GRASP will be made available through the existing forage grass database in the UK Cropnet (http://ukcrop.net/grass.html). GRASP is expected to be a platform for modern forage grass breeding but also for international follow-up projects.