Genetic analysis of forage, seed, and turf quality in tall fescue: Unraveling inheritance patterns and interrelationships

Abstract

Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb. syn. Lolium arundinaceum), an important cool-season grass, has limited understanding regarding its genetic inheritance patterns and the potential for simultaneous selection across forage, seed, and turf traits. In this study, 24 half-sib families derived from polycrosses, along with their corresponding parental genotypes, were assessed for different agro-morphological, seed, and turf quality characteristics in the field for 2 years (2019–2020). High genotypic variation was observed for all the measured traits. Moderate narrow-sense heritability (h²_PFM) for turf quality and seed-related traits indicated that genetic variance predominates in total phenotypic variance of these traits. Low value of h²_PFM (0.25) for dry forage yield (DFY) shows the high environmental influence on the expression of this economic trait. Indirect selection to improve DFY was more effective through its components, such as crown diameter (h²_PFM = 0.43) and plant height (h²_PFM = 0.48), which had higher heritability and positive correlation with forage yield. However, for seed and turf quality traits, direct selection would be possible during recurrent selection programs. The simultaneous selection for both forage yield and seed yield would be possible due to the positive correlation between them. Based on the application of multivariate analysis, parental genotypes and half-sib families with possible utility as forage and seed use or turf application were recognized, which can be used in the future breeding programs for developing synthetic varieties.