DNA Fingerprinting of Kentucky Bluegrass Cultivars and Hybrids.

With high and variable polyploidy, facultative apomixis, and small chromosome sizes, Kentucky bluegrass is a daunting target for genetic selection and improvement.  Two main obstacles concern the detection of hybrids and the identification of offtypes (for removal or otherwise), which can impede the end goal of implementing Mendelian genetics to improve a genotype.  Molecular markers and flow cytometry can circumvent these obstacles, and several classes of molecular markers have been used to great effect already.  In this study we show molecular signatures of plants within cultivars, of hybrid apomictic (maternal) offspring, and of hybrid offtypes.  We give a molecular perspective of cryptic variation that exists within apomictic plants, of differences among cultivars and germplasm, of the nature of molecular offtypes, and that molecular differences are generally but not always correlated with phenotypic offtypes.