The improvement of forages is essential to meet the growing demand for sustainable development of livestock production systems around the world. However, genetic improvement of forages by conventional plant breeding is a time-consuming process and mainly limited by a poor understanding of, often complex, target traits. The recent rapid development of molecular sciences and biotechnology offers numerous possibilities to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying trait performance in forage species, thus enabling us to develop better breeding strategies and refined tools supporting the development and deployment of improved genetics.
New tools in genomics, and related 'omics', technologies together with high-resolution automated plant phenotyping and the capability to effectively process the data generated, are becoming available to help enhance our ability to capture opportunities from the full range of genetic diversity available in forages. Leveraging these advances, along with the available genetic resources, offers us the opportunity for new approaches to enhance the quality and performance traits of forages at a relatively low cost. This Research Topic aims to present studies where these kinds of capabilities have been leveraged to take the research to the next level of forage selection in support of the development of new cultivars and varieties.
This Research Topic encourages the submission of integrated studies capturing a broad range of disciplines including morphological, physiological, and chemical analyses, integrated with studies of the genome, transcriptome, proteome, or metabolome, at the holistic level. We welcome studies on developing our understanding of the molecular basis of economically and ecologically important traits in forages, by utilizing the combination of genetic variation together with recent advances in marker-assisted selection including genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and the development of genomic selection (GS) techniques. The application of high-resolution automated plant phenotyping technologies, which help capture the genetic diversity in forages, is also welcome.
Please note: Descriptive studies that report responses of growth, yield or quality to agronomical treatments will not be considered if they do not progress physiological understanding of these responses.
The improvement of forages is essential to meet the growing demand for sustainable development of livestock production systems around the world. However, genetic improvement of forages by conventional plant breeding is a time-consuming process and mainly limited by a poor understanding of, often complex, target traits. The recent rapid development of molecular sciences and biotechnology offers numerous possibilities to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying trait performance in forage species, thus enabling us to develop better breeding strategies and refined tools supporting the development and deployment of improved genetics.
New tools in genomics, and related 'omics', technologies together with high-resolution automated plant phenotyping and the capability to effectively process the data generated, are becoming available to help enhance our ability to capture opportunities from the full range of genetic diversity available in forages. Leveraging these advances, along with the available genetic resources, offers us the opportunity for new approaches to enhance the quality and performance traits of forages at a relatively low cost. This Research Topic aims to present studies where these kinds of capabilities have been leveraged to take the research to the next level of forage selection in support of the development of new cultivars and varieties.
This Research Topic encourages the submission of integrated studies capturing a broad range of disciplines including morphological, physiological, and chemical analyses, integrated with studies of the genome, transcriptome, proteome, or metabolome, at the holistic level. We welcome studies on developing our understanding of the molecular basis of economically and ecologically important traits in forages, by utilizing the combination of genetic variation together with recent advances in marker-assisted selection including genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and the development of genomic selection (GS) techniques. The application of high-resolution automated plant phenotyping technologies, which help capture the genetic diversity in forages, is also welcome.
Please note: Descriptive studies that report responses of growth, yield or quality to agronomical treatments will not be considered if they do not progress physiological understanding of these responses.