CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Warm-season grasses are highly diverse in terms of modes of reproduction and genetic structures, and this variation has a marked effect on the evaluation of physiological traits. The low growing rate of these grasses during the cool-season in subtropical Argentina represents one of the most important limitations for beef-cattle production. The forage breeding program of Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, has the objective of decreasing this ?dormancy? period by selecting for photoperiod insensitive and cold tolerant hybrids and populations. The experimental design, evaluation and data analyses for these two traits are highly related with the genetic structures of the plant material. The most important warm-season perennial grasses reproduce by apomixis. The complexity of the evaluation and selection of apomictic species relates to the fact that different genetic structures are present in different parts of the breeding process. In this presentation, the case of the genus Paspalum is discussed since the diversity for modes of reproduction allows for an in depth analysis of the relation between genetic structures and the evaluation of seasonal growing patterns and related traits.