Collecting, utilizing and managing the genetic resources of cocksfoot at the INRA Station of Lusignan.

摘要

The agricultural and economic importance of the main sub-species of cocksfoot, Dactylis glomerata subsp. glomerata, is emphasized. From 1968 to 1992, breeders at the INRA Station of Lusignan have set up a programme for the creation of improved cultivars adapted to regions with a temperate climate. The collection of 700 voluntary populations of cocksfoot made it possible, in three stages (first Brittany and Cotentin, then N.W. Galicia and Portugal, finally Mediterranean regions with the adjunction of the sub-species hispanica), to release continually improved cultivars (7) during that period. The agricultural interest of these populations, with a view of meeting breeding objectives, is expounded. The problem is to conserve such a precious genetic variability. Would it be possible to have an in situ conservation in certain pedoclimatic situations? There are 600 populations conserved for a long-term period in the freezer, and 180 populations, representing the variability of the various large climatic regions, stored since 1993 in the European Centre for Genetic Resources of Poitou-Charentes. Their seed and the relevant 'passport' data are accessible under conditions.