Drought tolerance in Festulolium: interspecific hybridization and candidate gene isolation

In view of the expected climate change, grass breeders are interested in grasses performing better under these limiting conditions. Lolium perenne (Lp) and Lolium multiflorum (Lm) are considered as the optimal species for grassland agriculture as they provide high yields of nutritious forage. However, they lack resistance against abiotic stress. Genes for abiotic stress tolerance can be found in the Festuca species (F. pratensis (Fp), F. arundinacea (Fa), F. glaucescens (Fg)). To combine the interesting characteristics of both Lolium and Festuca, interspecific hybrids have been made.
The hybrids obtained constitute an interesting genetic system to analyze interactions between the 2 genomes. Why do such hybrids perform better under drought stress? Which genes are up- or down-regulated? Candidate genes for drought and abiotic stress tolerance were isolated and used for allele mining in the interspecific hybrids by means of High Resolution Melting (HRM) analysis. In a later stage, RT-qPCR will be used to evaluate the effect of induced drought conditions on the expression of these candidate genes in species and allele-specific expression in interspecific hybrids.