Scientific programme

EUCARPIA Brno 2023 conference - Final programme

"Novel technologies, strategies and crops to sustain forage production in future climate"

Sunday 10. 9. 2023

14 – 20 h registration and accommodation in the Hotel Avanti

14 – 18 h cycling tour

20 – 21 h. Miroslav Trnka: Future agroclimatic conditions and implications for European grasslands

Monday, 11. 9. 2023

8 – 18 h. registration and accommodation in the Hotel Avanti

09:00 – 09:20 Welcome talks (David Kopecký, Jan Nedělník, Tomáš Vymyslický)

09:20 – 10:05 Bohumír Cagaš: Seed production of grasses and legumes in the Czech Republic and its impact on the agro and environmental sphere

10:05 – 10:35 coffee break

10:35 – 12:35 Session I: Genetic resources and natural diversity

Moderators: Gillian Young and Josef Hakl

10:35 – 11:15 Odd Arne Rognli: Securing adaptation of timothy cultivars under climate change and during seed multiplication

11:15 – 11:35 Michelle M. Nay: Home sweet home – the genetic and phenotypic adaptation of red clover to European growing environments

11:35 – 11:55 Marie Pégard: Assessment of vulnerability to climate change in natural populations of perennial ryegrass across Europe from allele frequencies at adaptive loci

11:55 – 12:15 Tomáš Vymyslický: Grass and forage legume genetic resources in the Czech Republic and their practical utilization

12:15 – 12:35 Beat Boller: Triploid hybrids Festuca apennina × Lolium occur rarely in nature but show high colonizing potential without dominating the sward excessively

12:35 – 12:55 common photo

12:55 – 14:00 lunch

14:00 – 14:20 Bill Biligetu: Genetic variation and genome-environment association of alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) populations originating from long-term grazing sites

14:20 – 14:40 Philip Greenspoon: Genetic gain from simulated forage breeding programs with genomic selection

14:40 – 15:00 Mareike Kavka: Shattering resistance in genetic resources of the fodder grasses Lolium perenne L. and Festuca pratensis Huds.

15:00 – 15:05 Monica Alexandrina Tod: Allelopathis effect of herbage water extracts on seed germination and seedling development of some perennial grassland species

15:05 – 15:10 Ana Uhlarik: Agronomical traits, seed color and protein content of protein pea (Pisum sativum L.) cultivars grown in European conditions

15:10 – 15:15 Sanja Vasiljevic: Isoflavones profiles of some diploid and tetraploid red clover cultivars (Trifolium pratense L.) at flowering stage

15:15 – 15:20 Yutang Chen: Assembling forage grass genomes in the long-read sequencing era I: a case study with Lolium perenne L. and L. multiflorum Lam.

15:20 – 15:25 Mirjana Petrović: An initial metabolomic study on Hungarian clover

15:25 – 15:30 Annick Bertrand: Evaluation of alfalfa populations selected for reduced fall dormancy in a frequent cutting trial

15:30 – 15:35 Josef Hakl: Variability of sapogenins among Medicago falcata entries

15:35 – 15:40 Mallikarjuna Rao Kovi: Genome assembly and annotation of timothy (Phleum pratense L.)

15:40 – 16:10 coffee break

16:10 – 18:20 Festulolium Working Group Workshop

Moderators: David Kopecký and Bruno Studer

16:10 – 16:30 Yutang Chen: Assembling forage grass genomes in the long-read sequencing era II: towards a pan-genome of Lolium and Festuca species

16:30 – 17:10 Vladimír Černoch: History of Festulolium breeding in Czech Republic and future prospects

17:10 – 17:30 Tom Ruttink: Genome dominance in interspecific and intergeneric hybrids of Lolium, Festuca and Festulolium

17:30 – 17:50 Joanna Majka: Deciphering genome dominance in Festulolium

17:50 – 17:55 Marie Pegard: New insights of interspecific genetic variability within and between 4x Festulolium hybrid cvs by using KasPar markers

17:55 – 18:00 Kristina Jaskune: Development and characterization of productive and resilient Festulolium hybrids for future climate

18:00 – 18:05 David Perlikowski: Physiological and molecular indicators of winter-hardiness and frost tolerance in Lolium perenne × Festuca pratensis hybrids

18:05 – 18:20 general discussion

19:00 – 22:00 welcome party at Mendel museum

20:00 – 21:00 tour to the Mendel Museum (optional)

Tuesday, 12. 9. 2023

09:00 – 10:40 Session II: Advanced phenotyping and genotyping technologies

Moderators: Mathieu Wident and Oldřich Trněný

09:00 – 09:40 Bernadette Julier: New phenotyping, genotyping and statistical tools for forage breeding

09:40 – 10:00 Jenny Kiesbauer: A nested association mapping population reveals candidate genes for stem rust resistance in Italian ryegrass

10:00 – 10:20 Oldřich Trněný: Red clover's genetic playground: Leveraging low-coverage resequencing for enhanced breeding programs

10:20 – 10:25 Stephen Byrne: Implementation of multiple cycles of genome-wide selection for seasonal forage yield in perennial ryegrass.

10:25 – 10:30 Joanna Pranga: Phenotyping our future crops: in-field, non-destructive, high-throughput phenotyping of above and belowground plant traits

10:30 – 10:35 Danny Milbourne: Use of NIR spectra to predict heading date in perennial ryegrass

10:35 – 10:40 Nagarjun Devabhakthini: Exploring the genetic diversity of the IPK Medicago germplasm collection using GBS ed LIDAR sensor in perennial ryegrass field plots

10:40 – 11:10 coffee break

11:10 – 11:30 Luciano Pecetti: Development and proof-of-concept application of genome-enabled selection for alfalfa biomass yield in Northern Italy: preliminary results

11:30 – 11:50 Girma Bedada: Haplotype-phased genomes of timothy grasses – P. nodosum, P. alpinum, P. pratense

11:50 – 12:10 Harkingto Harkingto: Conventional and UAV-based phenotyping to characterize a broad collection of European lucerne germplasm in a Nordic environment

12:10 – 12:30 Joanna Pranga: Unleashing the potential of drones: how high-throughput field phenotyping can assist forage grass breeding

12:30 – 12:50 Kioumars Ghamkhar: Rapid forage yield and growth rate measurement using a remote-controll

12:35 - 14:00 lunch

14:00 – 15:15 Youth Session

Moderators: Joanna Majka and Agniezska Konkolewska

14:00 – 14:40 Chloé Manzanares: Exploiting new discoveries on self-incompatibility for forage grass breeding

14:40 – 15:00 Agnieszka Konkolewska: Establishing multi-trait genomic selection for forage improvement

15:00 – 15:05 Ágnes Áldott-Sipos: Evaluation of silage and grain yield of different maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes in ecological and conventional conditions

15:05 – 15:10 Marlies Peeters: Optimized tetraploidization strategies in tissue culture for Lolium and Festuca

15:10 – 15:15 Ferenz Sustek-Sánchez: Optimized Lolium perenne L. protoplasts isolation and transformation for CRISPR-Cas9 downstream applications.

15:15 – 15:45 coffee break

15:45 – 17:35 Session III: Qualitative and quantitative traits
Moderators: Piet Arts and Libor Jalůvka

15:45 – 16:25 E. Charlie Brummer: Thirty years of alfalfa genetic markers

16:25 – 16:45 Hilde Muyle: GWAS for drought tolerance in red clover (Trifolium pratense L.)

16:45 – 17:05 Heathcliffe Riday: Breeding Soft-seeded Hairy Vetch

17:05 – 17:25 Stanislav Hejduk: Differences between di- and tetraploid red clover cultivars. A review.

17:25 – 17:30 Christoph Grieder: Higher seed yield through targeted selection for reduced seed shattering in Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.)

17:30 – 17:35 Annie Claessens: Genetic selection for nonfiber carbohydrates in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) stem

17:40 – 19:00 Board meeting

Wednesday, 13. 9. 2023

8:00 – 18:30 Mid conference tour (Hladké Životice, Olomouc/Zubří, Troubsko)

19:30 Conference dinner – hotel Avanti (+short cultural programme)

Thursday, 14. 9. 2023

09:00 – 10:35 Session IV: Biotic and abiotic stresses

Moderators: Beat Boller and Stanislav Hejduk

09:00 – 09:40 Susanne Barth: Differential growth of a panel of perennial ryegrass accessions following excess water treatment over the winter under field conditions

09:40 – 10:00 Tim Vleugels: Phenotypic characterisation of drought tolerance in red clover (Trifolium pratense L.)

10:00 – 10:05 Eszter Csepregi-Heilmann: Cold stress study during emergence of maize (Zea mays L.) inbred lines

10:05 - 10:10 Mladen Prijovic: Morpho-biochemical response perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) populations to water shortage

10:10 – 10:15 Grazina Statkeviciute: Fv:Fm and RWC measurements as indicators of drought stress response in perennial ryegrass

10:15 – 10:20 Roland Kölliker: Towards an efficient detection of genetic diversity in multispecies grassland

10:20 – 10:25 Akhil Reddy Pashapu: Surviving under ice: Insights into gene expression changes during ice-encasement in perennial grasses

10:25 – 10:30 Filip Bekčić: Wilt of red clover caused by Fusarium oxysporum

10:30 – 10:35 Bernadette Julier: Early morphological traits condition the performance of lucerne plants in different competitive situations

10:35 – 11:05 coffee break

11:05 – 11:25 Charlotte Jones: Recurrent molecular selection for improved field resistance to crown rot (Sclerotinia trifoliorum) in red clover (Trifolium pratense)

11:25 – 11:45 Gillian K. Young: Evaluating root characteristics under field conditions in perennial ryegrass for potential application in commercial breeding programmes

11:45 – 12:05 Shridhar Jambagi: Red clover root microbiota and interaction of root rot and clover rot pathogens

12:05 – 12:25 Reah Gonzales: Divergent responses of perennial ryegrass and tall fescue to drought stress

12:25 – 12:45 Silvana Moreno-Vallejo: Response to waterlogging and drought in wild and domesticated accessions of timothy (Phleum pratense) and its wild relatives P. alpinum and P. nodosum

12:45 – 13:30 Business meeting (info from board, overview), prize giving ceremony, take-home messages

13:30 lunch

15:00 – 18:00 Post-Conference Tour - guided tour in Brno