COMMERCIALLY RELEVANT DIVERSE BREEDING POPULATIONS CREATED FROM THE USDA ALFALFA GERMPLASM COLLECTION

Our long-term goal is to develop new breeding pools from untapped genetic resources to improve biomass yield, forage nutritive value, and other traits to maintain and increase productivity in climates of the future. In previous iterations of this project, we have developed initial populations of both northern- and southern-adapted pools. For this proposal, we intend to characterize these populations both phenotypically and genetically, identify genetic loci contributing to agronomic and morphological traits, and release the initial populations through the official channels of our respective institutions, making them available through the NPGS for distribution to interested researchers and seed companies. In addition, we will continue to make selections within these pools in our on-going base broadening effort to make these populations relevant to commercial breeding programs.The specific objectives of this project are as follows:Assess genetic diversity among NPGS accessions and map important traits.Create and evaluate germplasm pools under multiple management systems.Release new pre-bred improved germplasm pools for community use.Extend information regarding germplasm pools and their performance.