Molecular techniques for improvement of forage crops

The paper deals with achievements made in forage crops for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, biodiversity analysis, especially in tropical forages. Recent advances in molecular techniques have created unprecedented opportunities for the crop genetic improvement. Although significant progress has been made in forage crops also but still a lot remains to be done. Several reports exist for temperate pasture crops like Lolium and Trifolium. The tropical forage crops such as Stylosanthes, perennial range grasses like Dichanthium, Sehima, forage legumes like Lucerne, berseem offer a great. challenge for the molecular biologist, biotechnologist and plant breeders. Since tropical fodder grasses have been less intensively studied than other members of the Poaceae and limited DNA sequences are available in the data bases, the transferability of STS markers developed largely on the basis of functional gene sequences along with some EST-SSRs have been attempted for genetic analysis of tropical grasses and legumes. The STS markers based on sequence of related species of Gramineae have been used in studying genetic relationship in ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) Of late, efforts have been made to develop microsatellite markers (SSR) in berseem, Stylosanthes seabrana and guineagrass which will demonstrate its applicability in genetics and gebomics of these important forage crops in near future. Tissue culture and embryo rescue technique have been utilized successfully for developing regeneration protocol, genetic transformation and transfer of desired traits from wild taxa. Major emphasis far genetic transformation of food and fodder crops has been on development of transgenic plants for biotic and abiotic stresses, quality improvement, value addition, molecular pharming etc, although not much breakthrough has yet taken place.