Abstract:

New varieties of high yielding， high-quality and multi-resistance forages are the cornerstone of animal husbandry production in China， and also the material basis for reseeding and improving degraded grassland in China， both of which affect the food security and ecological security of the country. Slow progress of forage breeding in China and a high international dependence have emerged as a “bottleneck” restricting progress in the field of agriculture. In the last decade， forage breeding has entered a period of rapid development driven by histological techniques and biotechnology， but there is still a progress gap compared with major crops. This paper summarizes three key bottlenecks in the future development of forage breeding in China： 1） Large-scale collection， highly refined evaluation and full utilization of germplasm resources， including the construction of high-saturation mutant libraries， various genetic populations， and similar resources； 2） Establishment and optimization of efficient regeneration， genetic transformation and gene editing systems for forage grasses； 3） High-precision assembly and utilization of forage genomes， including gene chips， whole genome selection， and following developments in this field as they emerge. Considering current knowledge frontiers in the discipline and national needs， the authors suggest ten scientific emphases should be developed in forage breeding in China within the next 5-10 years： collection and utilization of native plant resources， threshing and dormancy， male sterility， ploidy breeding， biological interaction， water and drought conservation， domestication from scratch， nutritional quality， automated phenotype detection and rapid breeding， in order to provide a capability platform for future research related to forage breeding. Achievement of these scientific goals will help China to develop a number of new forage grass varieties with independent intellectual property rights and strong market competitiveness in a comparatively short time frame， so as to eliminate the “bottleneck” problem in the field of agriculture and guarantee the food security and ecological security of the country.

Key words: forage, germplasm resource, genetic resources, breeding, molecular breeding, scientific issues