than 700 bermudagrass accessions in several trips abroad and performed extensive research in the germplasm, largely creating a knowledge pool of bermudagrass genetics and taxonomy.
During that period, Dr. Charles M. Taliaferro had earned his B.S. in agronomy with a field crop option from OSU; his M.S. in agronomy in 1965 and his Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics in 1966, both from Texas A&M University. He then worked for the USDA- Agricultural Research Service in Tifton, GA.
Dr. Taliaferro joined the OSU faculty in August of 1968. He began breeding and developing turf bermudagrasses in the mid-1980s. Part of the Harlan/de Wet/Huffine collection has been used in the subsequently developed OSU breeding program by Dr. Taliaferro.
study for my Ph.D. Bermudagrass was the primary turfgrass grown in southwest China, so I determined I wanted to study bermudagrass.”
Dr. Taliaferro’s OSU team had released two superior seeded bermudagrass cultivars to the turf industry: ‘Yukon’ in 1996 and ‘Riviera,’ in 2000. His team released a clonal cultivar ‘Patriot’ bermudagrass in 2002. All these cultivars are improved, with cold hardiness a primary trait.
Wu’s research into potential options for further study put Dr. Taliaferro’s program at the top of his list. In 2001, that option opened for him. Wu served as a Ph.D. Graduate Research Assistant at OSU’s Department of Plant and Soil Sciences through 2004, working in the Grass Breeding and Genetics Laboratory, supervised by Dr. Taliaferro. Wu says, “Dr. Taliaferro is wonderful to work with, an excellent professor, an excellent person. It was a fascinating time of learning.”
Te bermudagrass genomic library is used in developing DNA markers in Dr. Wu’s laboratory.
Also during the 1980s, Yanqi Wu was pursuing his education in China. In 1985, he earned his B.S. in Animal Science from Ningxia Agricultural College (now Ningxia University). In 1988, he completed his M.S. in Forage Science at Sichuan Agricultural University.
He then held a faculty position at Sichuan Agricultural University in China from 1988 to 2000, with research and teaching responsibilities in forage and turfgrass sciences. “Te Chinese economy picked up speed in the 1990s, which created a demand for the turf industry,” says Wu. “I somehow realized that early on and helped lead development of the first program for turfgrass science majors at a university in the southern part of China. It progressed so well we were drawing more than 500 students.”
Connecting with OSU Sichuan Agricultural University introduced a new policy in 1999, mandating that every faculty member under 45 must have a Ph.D. to be promoted to full professor. Wu says, “I saw that as my opportunity to
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Termocyclers for DNA marker amplification at the OSU grass breeding and genetics laboratory.
Wu’s faculty background segment on the OSU website covering that period reports, “Te research genetically characterized Cynodon germplasm accessions for important traits associated with forage, turf and other agronomical uses by morphology, flow cytometry and molecular marker systems. Significant findings included the determination of four distinct ploidy levels, 3x, 4x, 5x and 6x among 120 Cynodon accessions from China. Te Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) experiments resolved 28 C. dactylon var. dactylon (common bermudagrass) accessions from 11 countries encompassing four continents into distinct relatedness groupings. Tat AFLP study demonstrated that substantial genetic variation exists within C. transvaalensis, which is native to South Africa, and had been described as morphologically uniform.
“Field experiments indicated high levels of genetic variability among the 120 Chinese Cynodon accessions for descriptor traits including seed and biomass production, morphological traits, and three traits
TPI Turf News September/October 2016
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