Source: NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV submitted to
TURFGRASS BREEDING AND GENETICS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
HATCH
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1016714
Grant No.
(N/A)
Cumulative Award Amt.
(N/A)
Proposal No.
(N/A)
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Oct 1, 2018
Project End Date
Sep 30, 2023
Grant Year
(N/A)
Program Code
[(N/A)]- (N/A)
Project Director
Milla-Lewis, SU, R..
Recipient Organization
NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV
(N/A)
RALEIGH,NC 27695
Performing Department
Crop & Soil Sciences
Non Technical Summary
As an agricultural commodity, turfgrass is not food, fiber or animal feed. It impacts the lives of millions of people in manydifferent ways, however. The turfgrass industry has grown into a multibillion dollar business worldwide, that includes $57.9billion in business in the U.S alone in 2000. According to the last North Carolina Turfgrass survey (1999), the total acreage oftufgrass in the state neared 2.14 million acres. Over $1.22 billion was spent to maintain these areas. Single family dwellingswere by far the largest single sector of the industry, with 69% of the turf area and 60% of expenditures. Regarding the types ofgrasses used, tall fescue accounted for over 40% of the total area of maintained turf. Centipede and Bermuda were the next twomost common types with 16% and 11%, respectively.North Carolina is located in the transition zone for cool- and warm-season grasses. While this means that we can grow bothtypes of grasses, no one type of grass does well in all weather conditions. Cool season grasses go dormant during hot, drymonths and can turn brown and even die during extremely hot and dry conditions. Warm-season grasses are very droughttolerant because of their low water requirement, which makes them ideal during the summer months. However, they go dormantand turn brown during the cool days of fall and winter, and winter kill can often be a problem in the NC region.Applied plant breeding can be used to develop turfgrass cultivars that are better adapted to environmental conditions present inNorth Carolina. Development of cool-season grasses with increased heat and drought tolerance, and warm-season grasseswith improved cold tolerance would contribute significantly to different sectors of the turfgrass industry. Genetics and appliedplant breeding can also be used to improve aesthetics, performance, and disease resistance of turfgrass cultivars which, in turn,affect the efficiency of maintenance and production. The long-term goal of the program is to improve the sustainability andeconomic gain of the overall turfgrass industry in the state through the development of cultivars that require reduced inputs andthat are capable of tolerating biotic and environmental stresses while still maintaining good quality and overall performance.Despite the fact that large amounts of genomic information have been generated for other grasses such as rice, maize, andwheat, turfgrass species have lagged far behind. Work is needed to generate such information and utilize it to relate phenotypictraits to DNA nucleotide polymorphism.
Animal Health Component
70%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
28%
Applied
70%
Developmental
2%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
2012130108125%
2012130108010%
2012199108125%
2012199108010%
2022130108010%
2022199116010%
2022199113010%
Knowledge Area
201 - Plant Genome, Genetics, and Genetic Mechanisms; 202 - Plant Genetic Resources;

Subject Of Investigation
2130 - Turf; 2199 - Ornamentals and turf, general/other;

Field Of Science
1130 - Entomology and acarology; 1160 - Pathology; 1081 - Breeding; 1080 - Genetics;
Goals / Objectives
a) Develop tall fescue cultivars with improved heat and drought tolerance.b) Evaluate bermudagrass germplasm for superior shade tolerance.c) Develop St. Augustine and Zoysiagrass cultivars with improved cold toleranced) Continue work on the identification of sources of resistance to gray leaf spot and chinch bugs in St. Augustinegrass and large patch in Zoysiagrass. Incorporate resistance genes into breeding populations in order to develop cultivars with improved disease resistance.e) Continue linkage mapping work on St. Augustine and Zoysiagrass. Utilize genomics-derived information to identify markers linked to economically important genes such as those controlling resistance to gray leaf spot and cold tolerance.f) Utilize mutation breeding in centipedegrass in order to generate genotypic and phenotypic variation for cultivar development.
Project Methods
a) Recurrent phenotypic selection methods will continue to be used to develop breeding populations of tall fescue. Replicated field studies with no or limited supplemental irrigation are being conducted at the Sandhills Research Station to evaluate these materials for heat and drought tolerance.b) We will continue our work evaluating accessions of Cynodon transvaalensis collected from South Africa and that have been found to have superior shade tolerance in order to identify potential parents for breeding.c) Thousands of St. Augustinegrass hybrids have been generated to date through control crosses in the laboratory. Hybrids are transferred to the field and grown in un-replicated nurseries at three locations: the Lake Wheeler Turfgrass Field Lab (Raleigh, NC), the Sandhills Research Station (Jackson Springs, NC), and the Upper Mountain Research Station (Laurel Springs, NC), where they are initially evaluated for overall turf quality, drought tolerance and winter survival. Promising individuals are advanced to replicated field trials. Based on evaluation of the 2014-2016 advanced trials, 10 lines were selected for their superior performance across traits have been selected for evaluation in on-farm trials. The trials have been planted in TX, FL, and NC in order to evaluate these lines for potential commercial release. Evaluation of 2017 and 2018 advanced trials is underway.In Zoysigrass, hundreds of hybrids have been developed to date. These individuals were planted in un-replicated nurseries at three locations: the Lake Wheeler Turfgrass Field Lab (Raleigh, NC), the Sandhills Research Station (Jackson Springs, NC), and the Upper Mountain Research Station (Laurel Springs, NC), where they are initially evaluated for overall turf quality, drought tolerance and winter survival. Promising individuals are advanced to replicated field trials. Based on evaluation of the 2013-2014 advanced trials, 5 lines were selected for their superior performance across traits. These lines have been planted along roadside to evaluate their potential as low input turf. Evaluation of 2017 and 2018 advanced trials is underway.d) A set of plant introductions and cultivars of St. Augustinegrass have been evaluated under controlled environmental conditions in the NCSU phytotron for resistance to gray leaf spot, Pyricularia oryzae. Genotypes identified as having superior resistance have been used in crosses in order to develop breeding populations that segregate for GLS resistance. Work is underway to identify genomic regions controlling this resistance and molecular markers associated with them in order to implement a marker-assisted breeding program. Additionally, we have initiated work to evaluate the same materials for Rhizoctonia solani resistance. AS with the GLS project, the ultimate goal of this investigation is to improve genetic resistance to the pathogen in our breeding populations.A set of plant introductions and cultivars of St. Augustinegrass have been evaluated in the greenhouse against the southern chinch bug. Genotypes identified as having genetic resistance have been in used in crosses in order to develop breeding populations that segregate for chinch bug resistance. Work is underway to identify genomic regions controlling this resistance and molecular markers associated with them in order to implement a marker-assisted breeding program.Additionally, a set of plant introductions, including accessions of Zoysia japonica, Z. matrella, and Z. pacifica, and cultivars of Zoysiagrass is undergoing evaluation under controlled environmental conditions in the NCSU phytotron for resistance to brown patch, Rhizoctonia solani. The goals of this work are to: 1) identify resistance genes that can be subsequently used in development of disease resistant cultivars, 2) evaluate the effect of different isolates on disease response, and 3) elucidate genetic control of disease resistance. Additionally, we are currently developing a mapping population that is segregating for resistance in order to identify genomic regions controlling this resistance and molecular markers associated with them in order to implement a marker-assisted breeding program.e) A set of 1,000 St. Augustinegrass SSR primer pairs will have been developed in our laboratory. We have also worked on using GBS approaches to develop SNP-based high-density maps for Zoysia japonica and St. Augustinegrass. These maps, are currently being used to identify chromosomal regions contributing to important characteristics for these species using QTL analysis. In St. Augustinegrass we have mapped QTL for winter survival, freeze tolerance and turf quality, and are currently working on identify QTL for drought tolerance and chinch bug resistance. In zoyasiagrass we have mapped QTL for winter survival and turf quality and are currently working on identifying QTL associated with freeze tolerance and large patch resistance. Our ultimate goal is implementing marker-assisted breeding programs in both these species for traits of commercial importance. Doing so will expedite progress and increase the efficiency of the cultivar development.f) Ethyl methane-sulfonate (EMS) was used to induce mutations in centipedegrass cultivar 'Common'. Following mutagenic treatment of seeds, regenerated plantlets weree grown in the field and allowed to self-pollinate. A total of 3,000 M1 progenies were recovered and established in the Sandhills Research Station (SRS). A selection program for improved leaf texture, color, length and width, internode length and growth aggressiveness has been initiated. Eighty individuals with improved aggressiveness, leaf texture and drought tolerance have been planted in an advanced trial at the Lake Wheeler Turfgrass Field Lab (Raleigh, NC), the Sandhills Research Station (Jackson Springs, NC), and the Upper Mountain Research Station (Laurel Springs, NC) where they are being evaluated against commercial cultivars. Additionally, recurrent phenotypic selection is being applied in these populations to improve turf quality, winter survival and drought tolerance in centipedegrass.

Progress 10/01/20 to 09/30/21

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences: North Carolina Sod Producers Association, Turfgrass Council of North Carolina, turfgrass producers, managers and retailers in NC and the southern US, consumers in general (homeowners, landscapers, athletic fieldmanagers, golf course superintendents), students. Changes/Problems:Restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic loosened during 2021. However, reserach programs continued to be affected with some projects being delayed. MS student Sydney Graham had to extend her program an additional semester because of delays in research. This was an additional expense the program had to absorb. MS student Greta Rockstad had delays in planting of her reserach trials and as a consequence she was not able to collect data in 2020. These delays impact her reserach and her program was delayed an additional semester also. This was another additional expense the program had to absorb. Despite restrictions and delays, the breeding pipeline (planting, selection, advancement of lines) for St. Augustinegrass, zosiagrass, and tall fescue the remained unaffected. Planting of centipedegrass on-farm trials was delayed a year. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Master's and doctoral theses being directed: Master of Science 1. Kirtus P. Houting. Elucidating components of genetic resistance to large patch in zoysiagrass (Co-Advisor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, initiated Fall 2020) 2. Greta E. Rockstad. Integration of high-throughput phenotyping and genomics for drought tolerance breeding in St. Augustinegrass (Advisor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, initiated Fall 2019) 3. Sydney E. Graham. Genomic Approaches for Improving Freeze Tolerance in St. Augustinegrass (Advisor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, completed Spring 2021) Ph.D. 1. Susmita Gaire. Elucidating genetic and physiological components of freezing tolerance in St. Augustinegrass (Advisor, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, initiated Summer 2021) 2. Esdras M. Carbajal. Improving turfgrass quality and disease resistance through inter-ploidy breeding in warm-season grasses (Advisor, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, initiated Fall 2019) 3. Ashley Schonmaker. Analysis and Computational Methods for Understanding Disease Resistance at the Genomic Level in Complex Plant Systems (Co-advisor, Bioinformatics Program, initiated Fall 2019) Other: - Mentored one post-doctoral researcher, Dr. Beatriz Gouveia, January - December 2021. - Mentored undergraduate students in research projects in my lab: o Isabelle Gent, freshman in Plant Biotechnology major, Crop and Soil Sciences o Madison Lawson, Goodnight Scholar, freshman in Horticultural Science - Mentored three international interns: o Carolina Escalona (Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile), Jul-Dec 2021 o Alejandra Quinones (Universidad Peruaa Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru), Sep 2021 - Feb 2022 o Sergio Fernandez (Universidad Nacional de Agricltura, Olancho, Honduras), Sep 2021 - Aug 2022 How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Research abstracts at conferences: 1. ‡Yu, X., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2021. A transcriptomic analysis of St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum) provides novel insights into the basis of drought tolerance. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Salt Lake City, UT. Nov 5-9. 2. ‡Gouveia, B., Schwartz, B.M., Wu, Y., Kenworthy, K.E., Chandra, A., Raymer, P.L., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2021. Warm-season turfgrass species performance under drought. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Salt Lake City, UT. Nov 5-9. 3. *Houting, K.P., Kerns, J.P., Miller, G.L., Schwartz, B.M., Patton, A.J., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2021. Increasing insights into the polygenic inheritance of large patch resistance in zoysiagrass. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Salt Lake City, UT. Nov 5-9. 4. *Rockstad, G.B., Austin, R., Miller, G.L., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2021. Assessing unmanned aerial vehicle-based imagery for data collection in St. Augustinegrass. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Salt Lake City, UT. Nov 5-9. 5. *Carbajal, E.M., Miller, G.L., Dunne, J.C., Schwartz, B.M., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2021. Screening accessions of bermudagrass for shade and drought tolerance. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Salt Lake City, UT. Nov 5-9. Invited presentations: 1. Milla-Lewis, S.R. Turfgrass Breeding at NC State: Finding Commercial Niches for a New Breeding Program. NC State University International Plant Breeding Seminar Series. Virtual presentation, October 28th, 2021. 2. Milla-Lewis, S.R. XZ 14069 "Lobo" Zoysiagrass. NC State University Fall 2021 Plant Breeding Retreat, Lake Wheeler Turfgrass Field Lab, October 22nd, 2021. 3. Milla-Lewis, S.R. Porque y como crear un programa de mejoramiento genetico de cesped? Keynote speaker, Primera Conferencia Internacional de Césped, Peruvian Turfgrass Association and Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (Lima, Peru). Virtual presentation, October 16th, 2021. 4. Milla-Lewis, S.R. Mejoramiento Genético de Césped: De Donde Provienen las Nuevas Variedades? Ornamentals Research Group, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima, Peru. Virtual presentation, September 9th, 2021. 5. Milla-Lewis, S.R. From the Breeder's Corner: Update on turf cultivar releases. N.C. Sod Producers Assoc. Winter Conf., virtual meeting, January 13th, 2021. Field Days: 1. Speaker at the 2021 Turfgrass Field Day at the Lake Wheeler Turfgrass Field Lab, Raleigh, NC, August, 11th 2021. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?- continue recurrent phenoytpic selection for heat and drought tolerance in tall fescue - continue population development and selection in zoysiagrass, St. Augustinegrass and centipedegrass to improve turf auqlity in combination with abiotic and biotic stress tolerance - continue work on marker development, linkage mapping, and QTL mapping to identiy markers linked to traist of interest that can be subsequently used for marker-assisted selection - continue work on germplasm evaluation to identify potential parents for incorporating traits of interest into breeding populations - continue involvement in graduate education and mentoring activities

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. A new tall fescue cultivar (experimental denomiantion NC 2020), developed jointly by North Carolina State University and Blue Moon Farms LLC (Lebanon, OR)was released fall 2021. 2. A breeder's block of experimental St. Augustinegrass line XSA 11377, which has been under evaluation at reserach stations and sod farms across North Carolina since 2014, was plantedat the Lake Wheeler Turgrass Field Lab in preparation for commercial release summer 2022. 3. Sxiteen advanced centipedegrass lines developed from our efforts in mutation breeding are in the last stages of testing before moving them to sod farm trials to evaluate their potential for release under real sod production practices. 4. Genomic regions associated with freeze tolerance in zoysiagrass have been validated and we will initiate implementation of their use in a marker-assisteed selection program. 5. Thirty bermudagrass genoytpes collected from South Africa were evaluated for shade and drought tolerance. Data collected over three years identified two accessions with superior performance. 6. Zoysiagrass lineXZ14069, which has been evaluated since 2015 on roadside trials across NC and multi-state trials across the southern US, was released as commercial cultivar LOBOTM in summer 2021. Foundation fields of the cultivar were planted on three sod farms last summer. Nine NC sod farms has signed up to being commercial production of the cultivar and will be obtaining vegetative stock from those three farms in August of this year.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: 6. Gouveia, B.T., Rios, E.F., Rodrigues J.A., Gezan, S.A., Munoz, P.R., Kenworthy, K.E., Unruh, J.B., Miller, G.L., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Schwartz, B.M., Raymer, P.L., Chandra, A., Wherley, B., Wu, Y., Martin, D.L., and Moss, J.Q. 2020. Genotype x environment analysis of turf quality in bermudagrass across the southeastern United States. Crop Sci. 60(6): 3328-3343 https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20260
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Yu, X., Mulkey, S.E., Ma, B.Y., Arellano, C., Zuleta, M.C. Reynolds, W.C., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Resistance to gray leaf spot in St. Augustinegrass: Characterization and QTL mapping. Plant Disease 104(11): 2799-2806. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-04-20-0905-RE
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Brown, J.M., Holloway, H.M.P., DaCosta, M., Bernstein, R., Tuong, T.D., Patton, A.J., Arellano, C., Livingtston, D.P., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Differences in proteome response to cold acclimation in Zoysia japonica cultivars with different levels of freeze tolerance. Crop Sci: 60(5): 2744-2756. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20225
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: 1. Braun, R.C., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Carbajal, E.M., Schwartz, B.M. and Patton, A.J. 2021. Performance and playability of experimental low-input coarse-textured zoysiagrass in multiple climates. Grass Research 1: 10 doi: 10.48130/GR-2021-0010
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Gouveia, B.T., Raymer, P.L., Schwartz, B.M., Rios, E.F., Kenworthy, K.E., Unruh, J.B., Fontanier, C., Carbajal, E.M., Kruse, J., Restuccia, N. and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2021. Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Sw.) performance under shade in multi-environment trials. Grass Research 1: 6 doi: 10.48130/GR-2021-0006
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: 3. Van der Laat, R., Dale, A.G., Arellano, C., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2021. Variation in southern chinch bug (Blissus insularis) survival and damage on St. Augustinegrass germplasm. Intl. Turfgrass Soc. Res. J. 2021: 1-10 https://doi.org/10.1002/its2.67
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: 4. Moseley, D.O., Trappe, J.M., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Chandra, A., Kenworthy, K.E., Liu, W., and Patton, A.J. 2021. Characterizing the Growth and Winter Survival of Commercially Available and Experimental Genotypes of St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum). Crop Sci. 61(5): 3097-3109 doi: 10.1002/csc2.20445
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Submitted Year Published: 2022 Citation: Graham, S.E., Gouveia, B.T., Carbajal, E.M., Van der Laat, R., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. ND. Multi-environment evaluation of St. Augustinegrass [Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze] breeding lines for turfgrass quality traits and stress tolerance in North Carolina. (in review)
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2021 Citation: Brown, J.M., Yu, X., Holloway, H.M.P., Tuong, T.D., Schwartz, B.M., Patton, A.J., Arellano, C., Livingston, D.P., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2021. Identification of QTL associated with cold acclimation and freezing tolerance in Z. japonica. Crop Sci 61(5): 3044-3055 doi: 10.1002/csc2.20368
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2022 Citation: 7. Katuwal, K.B., Jespersen, D., Bhattarai, U., Chandra, A., Kenworthy, K.E., Milla-Lewis, S. R., Schwartz, B.M., Wu, Y., Raymer, P. ND. Multi-locational screening identified new drought tolerant warm-season turfgrasses. Crop Science (accepted)


Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences: North Carolina Sod Producers Association, Turfgrass Council of North Carolina, turfgrass producers, managers and retailers in NC and the southern US, consumers in general (homeowners, landscapers, athletic field managers, golf course superintendents), students. Changes/Problems:Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reserach programs at NC State operated under severe restrictions. Some reserach projects had to be postponed and others were delayed by months. MS student Sydney Graham had to extend her program anadditional semester because of delays in research. This was an additional expense the program had to absorb. MS student Greta Rockstad had delays in planting of her reserach trials and as a consequence she was not able to collect data in 2020. This might result in her having to delay her program an additional semester also. This would represent addtional expenses to the program. Despite restrictions and delays, the breeding pipeline (planting, selection, advancement of lines) for the program remained unaffected. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Master of Science Kirtus P. Houting. Elucidating components of genetic resistance to large patch in zoysiagrass (Co-Advisor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, initiated Fall 2020) Greta E. Rockstad. Integration of high-throughput phenotyping and genomics for drought tolerance breeding in St. Augustinegrass (Advisor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, initiated Fall 2019) Sydney E. Graham. Genomic Approaches for Improving Freeze Tolerance in St. Augustinegrass (Advisor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, initiated Fall 2018) Ph.D. Esdras M. Carbajal. Improving turfgrass quality and disease resistance through inter-ploidy breeding in warm-season grasses (Advisor, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, initiated Fall 2019) Ashley Schonmaker. Analysis and Computational Methods for Understanding Disease Resistance at the Genomic Level in Complex Plant Systems (Co-advisor, Bioinformatics Program, initiated Fall 2019. Post-doctoral Beatriz Gouveia. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Oral and poster presentations during conferences: Gouveia, B., Raymer, P.L., Schwartz, B.M., Kenworthy, K.E., Fontanier, C., Porto, A.C., Rios, E.F., Unruh, J.B., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Performance and Genotype-By-Environment Interaction in Seashore Paspalum (Paspalumvaginatum) Evaluated Under Shade Conditions. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Phoenix, AZ. Nov 8-11. Porto, A.C., Paudel, D., Gouveia, B.T., Kenworthy, K.E., Kruse, J.K., Munoz, P.R., Schwartz, B.M., Novaes, E., Milla-Lewis, S.R.,andRios, E.F. 2020 Multi-Environment Evaluation of St. Augustinegrass Genotypes Under Shade. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Phoenix, AZ. Nov 8-11. Graham, S.E., Kimball, J.A., Yu, X., Schoonmaker, A., Hulse-Kemp, A., Tuong, T.D., Livingston, D.P.,and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Mapping Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Freeze Tolerance in St. Augustinegrass. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Phoenix, AZ. Nov 8-11. Carbajal, E.M., Patton, A.J., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Braun, R.C.,and Schwartz, B.M. 2020. Exploring the Use of Coarse Zoysiagrass Phenotypes As a Low-Input Turf for Golf Course Roughs. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Phoenix, AZ. Nov 8-11. Rockstad, G.B., Austin, R., Yu, X., Carbajal, E.M., Dunne, J.C., Miller, G.L., Jespersen, D.,and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Evaluation of UAV-Based Imagery for Drought Stress Traits in St. Augustinegrass. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Phoenix, AZ. Nov 8-11. Kajla, A., Fontanier, C.H., Zhang, L., Wu, Y., Chandra, A., Schwartz, B.M.,and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Effect of Low Light Conditions on Photosynthetic Parameters of Selected Warm-Season Turfgrasses. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Phoenix, AZ. Nov 8-11. Gragg, B.R., Miller, G.L., Milla-Lewis, S.R., McCauley, R.K., and Pinnix, G.D. 2020. Comparing Installation Techniques of Zoysiagrass (Zoysia japonica) for North Carolina Roadsides. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., Phoenix, AZ. Nov 8-11. Presentations during field days Organizer and speaker at the 2020 NC State Turfgrass Breeding and Genetics Virtual Research Update, online field day, August 24th 2020. Speaker at the 2020 Turfgrass Virtual Field Day, Zoom-based webinar, July 29th 2020. Speaker at the 2020 North Carolina Sod Producers Association Winter Meeting, Greensboro, NC, January 29th 2020. Invited presentations Milla-Lewis S.R. Germplasm characterization in St. Augustinegrass and its application in breeding for gray leaf spot resistance. Dept. of Agronomy, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Lima, Peru. Virtual presentation, August 31st 2020. Milla-Lewis S.R. Application of Genomic Tools for Turfgrass Improvement. Dept. of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, February 27th 2020. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?- continue recurrent phenoytpic selection for heat and drought tolerance in tall fescue - continue population development and selection inzoysiagrass, St. Augustinegrass and centipedegrass to improve turf auqlity in combination with abiotic and biotic stress tolerance - continue work on marker development, linkage mapping, and QTL mapping to identiy markers linked to traist of interest that can be subsequently used for marker-assisted selection - continue work on germplasm evaluation to identify potential parents for incorporating traits of interest into breeding populations - continue involvement in graduate education and mentoring activities

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. A new tall fescue cultivar (experimental denomiantion NC 2020), developed jointly by North Carolina State University and Blue Moon Farms LLC (Lebanon, OR) is currently under final stages of evaluation and might be released this fall. 2. Five St. Augustinegrass lines were evaluated for sod production traits last fall in NC and TX. Two of these lines have been selected and willbe released this year. 3. Twenty advanced centipedegrass lines developed from our efforts in mutation breeding are in the last stages of testing before moving them to sod farm trials to evaluate their potential for release under real sod production practices. 4. Genomic regions associated with freeze tolerance in St. Augustinegrass have been validated and we will initiateimplementation of their use in a marker-assisteed selection program. 5. Thirty bermudagrass genoytpes were collected from South Africa based on their potential shade and drought tolerance. They have the Sandhills Reserach Station (Jackson Springs, NC) and the Turf Field Lab (Raleigh, NC) to further evaluate their performance under different environmental conditions. Data on these trials was collected last year. 6. Zoysiagrass lines XZ14069 and XZ 14070 have been under evaluation for their ability to thrive under low inputs. Both lines have been established in sod farm trials in NC, SC and VA to evaluate their potential for commercial release.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Brown, J.M., Holloway, H.M.P., DaCosta, M., Bernstein, R., Tuong, T.D., Patton, A.J., Arellano, C., Livingtston, D.P., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Differences in proteome response to cold acclimation in Zoysia japonica cultivars with different levels of freeze tolerance. Crop Sci: 60(5): 2744-2756. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20225
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Yu, X., Mulkey, S.E., Ma, B.Y., Arellano, C., Zuleta, M.C. Reynolds, W.C., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Resistance to gray leaf spot in St. Augustinegrass: Characterization and QTL mapping. Plant Disease 104(11): 2799-2806. https://doi.org/10.1094/PDIS-04-20-0905-RE
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Gouveia, B.T., Rios, E.F., Rodrigues J.A., Gezan, S.A., Munoz, P.R., Kenworthy, K.E., Unruh, J.B., Miller, G.L., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Schwartz, B.M., Raymer, P.L., Chandra, A., Wherley, B., Wu, Y., Martin, D.L., and Moss, J.Q. 2020. Genotype x environment analysis of turf quality in bermudagrass across the southeastern United States. Crop Sci. 60(6): 3328-3343 https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20260
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Carbajal, E.M., Ma, B., Zuleta, M.C., Reynolds, W.C., Arellano, C., Tredway, L.P. and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Identification of sources of resistance to gray leaf spot in Stenotaphrum germplasm. Crop Sci. (in print) doi: 10.1002/csc2.20371
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2020 Citation: Gouveia, B.T., Rodrigues Nunes, J.A., Gezan, S.A., Munoz, P.R., Kenworthy, K.E., Unruh, J.B., Rodrigues J.A., Gezan, S.A., Miller, G.L., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Schwartz, B.M., Raymer, P.L., Chandra, A., Wherley, B., Wu, Y., Martin, D.L., Moss, J.Q. and Rios, E.F., 2020. Multi-species genotype-by-environment interaction for turfgrass quality in five breeding programs in the southeastern United States. Crop Sci. (in print) https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20421
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2020 Citation: Brown, J.M., Yu, X., Holloway, H.M.P., Tuong, T.D., Schwartz, B.M., Patton, A.J., Arellano, C., Livingtston, D.P., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2020. Identification of QTL associated with cold acclimation and freezing tolerance in Z. japonica. Crop Sci (in print) doi: 10.1002/csc2.20368
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Awaiting Publication Year Published: 2021 Citation: 2. Moseley, D.O., Trappe, J.M., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Chandra, A., Kenworthy, K.E., Liu, W., and Patton, A.J. ND. Characterizing the Growth and Winter Survival of Commercially Available and Experimental Genotypes of St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum). Crop Sci. (in print) doi: 10.1002/csc2.20445
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2021 Citation: Van der Laat, R., Dale, A.G., Arellano, C., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. ND. Variation in southern chinch bug (Blissus insularis) survival and damage on St. Augustinegrass germplasm. Intl. Turfgrass Soc. Res. J. (accepted)


Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19

Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences: North Carolina Sod Producers Association, Turfgrass Council of North Carolina, turfgrass producers, managers and retailers in NC and the southern US, consumers in general (homeowners, landscapers, athletic field managers, golf course superintendents), students. Efforts: an oral presentation was given at the North Carolina Sod Producers Association and s field day was held at The Lake Wheeler Turfgrass Field Lab in order to provide an update on the program's progress and general education on what breeding processes involve. Mr. Oscar Vargas (Univerisdad Privada Antenor Orrego, Trujillo, Peru) joined the program as an intern (Mar-Aug 2019) for him to acquire hands on experience on designing and implementing experiments in the area of plant breeding. Changes/Problems:Research Specialist Carolina Zuleta left the program after 11years of employment. We have restructured responsibilities of technicians and have move forward fro this change without major delays or issues. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Master of Science Greta E. Rockstad. Integration of high-throughput phenotyping and genomics for drought tolerance breeding in St. Augustinegrass (Advisor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, initiated Fall 2019) Sydney E. Graham. Genomic Approaches for Improving Freeze Tolerance in St. Augustinegrass (Advisor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, initiated Fall 2018) Jessica M. Brown. Elucidating Mechanisms of Freezing Tolerance in Zoysiagrass. (Advisor, Crop and Soil Sciences Department, completed Fall 2019) Ph.D. Esdras M. Carbajal. Improving turfgrass quality and disease resistance through inter-ploidy breeding in warm-season grasses (Advisor, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, initiated Fall 2019) Ashley Schonmaker. Analysis and Computational Methods for Understanding Disease Resistance at the Genomic Level in Complex Plant Systems (Co-advisor, Bioinformatics Program, initiated Fall 2019) Other mentoring: • Post-doctoral researcher: Dr. Xingwang Yu • International student interns: Carolina Escalona (Universidad de COncepcion, Concepcion, Chile) and Oscar Vargas (Universidad Privado Antenor Orrego, Trujillo, Peru) Graduate student committees: Member, UF IFAS Agronomy, graduate committee member for Ms. Jamie Buhlman Mentored one ASA-CSSA-SSSA Golden Opportunity Scholar: Paul Skillin, Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Oral presentations during fields days and regional conferences, publications in peer reviewed journals, oral and poster presentations in scientific conferences. Invited presentations: Milla-Lewis S.R. Integrating Classical and Genomic Approaches for Turfgrass Improvement in North Carolina. Institute for Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, November 21st, 2019. Milla-Lewis S.R. Developing more Resilient Grasses for North Carolina. Freedom Lawns USA Workshop, Surf City, NC, September 26th, 2019. Milla-Lewis S.R. Making the Grass Greener in North Carolina. 73rd Annual Southeastern Turfgrass Conference, Tifton, GA, April 25th, 2019. Milla-Lewis, S.R. Improved Stress Tolerance for NC Grasses. Green Industry Meeting. Rockingham County Agricultural Center, Reidsville, NC, February 16th, 2019. Milla-Lewis, S.R. Breeder's Update. N.C. Sod Producers Assoc. Winter Conf., Greensboro, NC, January 16th, 2019. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?- continue recurrent phenoytpic selection for heat and drought tolerance in tall fescue - continue population development and selection in bermudagrass, zoysiagrass, St. Augustinegrass and centipedegrass to improve turf auqlity in combination with abiotic and biotic stress tolerance - continue work on marker development, linkage mapping, and QTL mapping to identiy markers linked to traist of interest that can be subsequently used for marker-assisted selection - continue work on germplasm evaluation to identify potential parents for incorporating traits of interest into breeding populations - continue involvement in graduate education and mentoring activities

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1. A new tall fescue cultivar, developed jointly by North Carolina State University and Blue Moon Farms LLC (Lebanon, OR)will be realsed this fall. 2. Five St. Augustinegrass lineshave been planted in sod farm trials in Texasand North Carolina to evaluate their potential for release under real sod production practices. These lines are in the final stages of testing prior to a commercial release. 3. Twenty centipedegrass lines developed from our efforts in mutation breedingare in the last stages of testing before moving them to sod farm trials to evaluate their potential for release under real sod production practices. 4. Genomic regions associated with gray leaf spot resistance in St. Augustinegrass have been identified and are in the process of being vaidated so that we can implement marker-assisteed selection for this important disease. 5. Thirty bermudagrass genoytpes were collected from South Africa based on their potential shade and drought tolerance. They have the Sandhills Reserach Station (Jackson Springs, NC) and the Turf Field Lab (Raleigh, NC) to further evaluate their performance under different environmental conditions. 6. Zoysiagrass line XZ14069 was entered into the the low-input zysiagrass National Turfgrass Evaluation Program. These line was selected for its speed of establishment and superior performance under marginal conditions.

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Carbajal, E.M., Zuleta, M.C., Schwartz, B.M., Chavarro, M.C., Ballen-Taborda, A.C., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. Development of colchicine-induced tetraploid St. Augustinegrass (Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walt.) Kuntze) lines. Plant Breed. 00: 1-9; DOI: 10.1111/pbr.12742
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Dunne, J.C., Tuong, T.D., Livingston, D.P. Reynolds, W.C., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. Field and laboratory evaluation of bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) germplasm for cold hardiness. Crop Sci. 59: 392-399. doi: 10.2135/cropsci2017.11.0667.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Khanal, S., Dunne, J.C., Schwartz, B.M., Kim, C., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Raymer, P.L., Adhikari, J., Auckland, S.A., Rainville, L., and Patterson, A.H. 2019. Molecular dissection of quantitative variation in bermudagrass hybrids (Cynodon dactylon x transvaalensis): Morphological traits. G3: Genes | Genomes | Genetics 9(8): 2581-2596; https://doi.org/10.1534/g3.119.400061.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yu X; Jessica M. Brown; Sydney E. Graham; Esdras M. Carbajal; Maria C. Zuleta; Susana R. Milla-Lewis. 2019. Detection of Quantitative Trait Loci Associated with Drought Tolerance in St. Augustinegrass. PLOS ONE. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224620.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2020 Citation: Brown, J.M., Holloway, H.M.P., DaCosta, M., Bernstein, R., Tuong, T.D., Patton, A.J., Arellano, C., Livingtston, D.P., and Milla-Lewis, S.R.. ND. Differences in proteome response to cold acclimation in Zoysia japonica cultivars with different levels of freeze tolerance. Crop Sci (accepted).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Under Review Year Published: 2020 Citation: Gouveia, B.T., Rios, E.F., Rodrigues J.A., Gezan, S.A., Munoz, P.R., Kenworthy, K.E., Unruh, J.B., Miller, G.L., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Schwartz, B.M., Raymer, P.L., Chandra, A., Wherley, B., Wu, Y., Martin, D.L., and Moss, J.Q. ND. Genotype x environment analysis of turf quality in bermudagrass across the southeastern United States. Crop Science (in review).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: *Brown, J.M., Yu, X., Tuong, T., Livingston, and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. Identification and validation of freeze tolerance and cold acclimation associated QTL in zoysiagrass. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., San Antonio, TX. Nov 10-13.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: *Brown, J.M., Yu, X., Tuong, T., Livingston, and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. Transcriptomic approach to identification of freezing tolerance components in zoysiagrass. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., San Antonio, TX. Nov 10-13
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: *Yu, X., Mulkey, S.E., Zuleta, M.C., Arellano, C., Ma, B., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. QTL mapping of resistance to gray leaf spot in St. Augustinegrass. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., San Antonio, TX. Nov 10-13
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Van der Laat, R., Dale, A.G., Arellano, C. and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. Screening St. Augustinegrass germplasm for southern chinch bug resistance. Proc. Amer. Soc. Agron. Intl. Ann. Mtg., San Antonio, TX. Nov 10-13
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: *Graham, S.E., Kimball, J.A., Yu, X., Tuong, T.D., Zheng, Y., Livingston, D.P., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. Validation of Quantitative Trait Loci associated with freeze tolerance in St. Augustinegrass across two populations. Ntl. Assoc. Pl. Breed. Ann. Mtg. Pine Mountain, GA. Aug 25-29
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: *Brown, J.M., DaCosta, M., Holloway, H.M., Yu, X., Tuong, T., Livingston, D.P., Patton, A.J., Schwartz, B.M., Arellano, C., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. QTL mapping and proteomic analysis for the development of efficient selection of freeze tolerance in zoysiagrass. Intl. Forage & Turf Breeding Conf. Orlando, FL. Mar 24-27
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Gouveia, B.T., Rios, E.F., Kenworthy, K.E., Munoz, P., Unruh, J.B., Milla-Lewis, S.R., Miller, G.L., Schwartz, B.M., Raymer, P., Chandra, A., Wherley, B., Wu, Y., Martin, D. and Moss, J. 2019. Genotype-by-environment analysis of turf quality in bermudagrass. Intl. Forage & Turf Breeding Conf. Orlando, FL. Mar 24-27
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: *Graham, S.E., Kimball, J.A., Yu, X., Tuong, T.D., Zheng, Y., Livingston, D.P., and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. Validation of QTL associated with freeze tolerance in St. Augustinegrass. Intl. Forage & Turf Breeding Conf. Orlando, FL. Mar 24-27
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Milla-Lewis, S.R., Zuleta, M.C. and Carbajal, E.M. 2019. Genetic improvement of centipedegrass through chemical mutagenesis. Intl. Forage & Turf Breeding Conf. Orlando, FL. Mar 24-27
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Yu, X. and Milla-Lewis, S.R. 2019. Detection of quantitative trait loci associated with drought tolerance in St. Augustinegrass. Intl. Forage & Turf Breeding Conf. Orlando, FL. Mar 24-27