Low temperature is one of the abiotic stresses seriously affecting the growth of perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.), and freezing tolerance is a complex trait of major agronomical importance in northern and central Europe. Understanding the genetic control of freezing tolerance would aid in the development of cultivars of perennial ryegrass with improved adaptation to frost. The plant mater...

The chemical interaction between plants, which is referred to as allelopathy, may result in the inhibition of plant growth and development. The objective of this research was to determine the impact of kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) plant extracts on the seed germination of five plant species. Four concentrations (0, 16.7, 33.3 and 66.7 g/L) of kenaf leaf, bark, and core extracts were applied t...

The objectives of this study were to examine long-term effects of feeding forage rape (Brassica napus L.) on methane yields (g methane per kg of feed dry matter intake), and to propose mechanisms that may be responsible for lower emissions from lambs fed forage rape compared to perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.). The lambs were fed fresh winter forage rape or ryegrass as their sole diet for...

Feeding preference, mating frequency, fecundity, and egg hatch of rice stink bug, Oebalus pugnax (F.), were examined in the laboratory. Adult rice stink bugs were allowed to feed on one of four different food sources including barnyardgrass, dallisgrass, ryegrass, and a new artificial rice flour diet. Initially, a higher percentage of females fed on all food sources than did males. Ryegrass and...

Differences have been shown between ryegrass and fescue within the Festulolium subline introgression family for fructan synthesis, metabolism, and polymer-size traits. It is well-established that there is considerable variation for water-soluble carbohydrate and fructan content within perennial ryegrass. However there is much still to be discovered about the fructan polymer pool in this species...

BACKGROUND Perennial ryegrass is a highly heterozygous outbreeding grass species used for turf and forage production. Heterozygosity can affect de-Bruijn graph assembly making de novo transcriptome assembly of species such as perennial ryegrass challenging. Creating a reference transcriptome from a homozygous perennial ryegrass genotype can circumvent the challenge of heterozygosity. The goals ...

Calcium water treatment residue (Ca-WTR), an industrial by-product, was found to be effective in decreasing Cu availability in contaminated soils and transport to the environment. In this study, a greenhouse study was conducted to test the ability of Ca-WTR to reduce the toxicity and uptake of Cu by ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) as indicator crop plants in Cu-cont...

The reaction of ingested forage plant fragments to the rumen environment may contribute to the rapid degradation of plant cell contents in the rumen. A series of experiments were used to explore the hypothesis that plant-mediated proteolysis (PMP) contributes to N loss from fresh forage entering the rumen, and to investigate the potential for identifying cultivars with reduced PMP. During an in...

Direct-infusion mass spectrometry (MS) was applied to study the metabolic effects of the symbiosis between the endophytic fungus Neotyphodium lolii and its host perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) in three different tissues (immature leaf, blade, and sheath). Unbiased direct-infusion MS using a linear ion trap mass spectrometer allowed metabolic effects to be determined free of any preconceptio...

Pinus radiata D. Don is an important tree in New Zealand where it is widely grown for timber and, to a lesser extent, in association with pasture species. In pure stands of P. radiata in Canterbury, poor development of undergrowth may in part be caused by volatile inhibitory substances released from the decomposing litter. In previous work it was shown that vapour from incubated P. radiata litt...