"Increasing the Diversity of Cool-Season Turfgrass Germplasm Resources to Meet the Challenges of Climate Change".

As climate change causes increases in temperature and extremes in precipitation it may also result in increases in disease incidence. There is a great demand for new germplasm resources to meet the effects of climate change in the world. The New Jersey Agriculture Experiment Station at Rutgers University has been collecting a large number of diverse cool-season turfgrass germplasm from old turgrass areas from many areas of the United States since the 1960's. Many of these turf areas were created from seed brought from Europe that was used to plant many large turf areas. Since 1996, over 20,000 new collections of cool- season turfgrasses  have been made  from old turf areas throughout Europe, the center of origin for most cool-season turfgrass species. This germplasm was brought to the United States as seed.   Seventeen sources of gray leaf spot (Pyricularia oryzae)resistance out of 3000 collections were identified from new perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) germplasm that have been backcrossed into USA adapted perennial ryegrass germplasm. Over 2000 Kentucky bluegrasses (Poa pratensis L.) have been co llected from throughout Europe that make up a unique DNA classification group based SSR's markers that are very different from commercial US germplasm. These collections were most similar to original germplasm collections from old turf areas in the USA in the 1960s-1990's. A number of new tall fescue (Lolium arundinaceaum L.) collections have also been identified that have superior turf performance. These are being backcrossed into well adapted US cultivars.