Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf

The 5th International Symposium on the Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf covers all aspects of molecular breeding of forage and turf plants, from gene discovery, functional genomics, molecular genetics and marker technology, marker-assisted selection, transgenesis to transgenic molecular breeding; address applications - among others - for enhanced quality, tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses; relating to forage grasses, forage legumes, their bacterial and fungal endosymbionts, as well as turf grasses.

The Symposium includes keynote presentations from international science leaders in the above fields and offer abstracts in the following topics - breeding and functional genomics for tolerance to biotic stress, - Molecular breeding and functional genomics for tolerance to abiotic stress, - Molecular genetics and modification of flowering and reproductive development, - Genomics of plant-symbiont relations, - Molecular breeding for animal, human and environmental welfare, - Development and Application of molecular technologies in forage and turf improvement, - Bioinformatics-bringing data to a usable form for breeders, - Population and quantitative genetic aspects of molecular breeding, - Gene manipulation, field testing, risk assessment and biosafety, - Intellectual property rights for molecular tools or marker systems.

This book includes papers from plenary lectures and selected oral presentations of the 5^th International Symposium on the Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf. A wide variety of themes are addressed in a collection that provides authoritative reports on the recent progress and understanding of molecular technologies and their application in plant breeding. The book covers almost all relevant areas in molecular breeding of forage and turf as well as biofuel crops, from gene discovery to the development of improved cultivars.

The Symposium includes keynote presentations from international science leaders in molecular breeding of forage and turf and offers papers in the following topics:

• Molecular breeding to improve forages for use in animal and biofuel production systems
• DREB regulons in abiotic-stress-responsive gene expression in plants
• Comparative genomics in legumes
• Characterization and utilization of genetic resources
• Functional genomics of forage and bioenergy quality traits in the grasses
• Genome mapping in cool-season forage grasses
• Improving selection in forage, turf, and biomass crops using molecular markers
• Fungal endophytes in Lolium and Festuca species
• Colonial bentgrass genetic linkage mapping
• Advances and prospects in the molecular breeding of Zoysia
• Transgenesis in forage crops

The 5^th International Symposium on the Molecular Breeding of Forage and Turf is a valuable resource for plant breeders, geneticists and molecular biologists, and will be an interest to advanced undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers with an interest in forage and turf improvement.

Dr. Toshihiko Yamada is a professor of Field Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, Japan.

Dr. German Spangenberg is Executive Director of Biosciences Research Division, Department of Primary Industries, Victorian AgriBiosciences Centre, Australia.