Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is an important cool season forage plant that is not well suited to extreme heat, salts, or heavy metals. To develop transgenic tall fescue plants with enhanced tolerance to abiotic stress, we introduced a MsHsp23 gene expression vector construct through Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Integration and expression of the transgene were confirmed by PCR, northern blot, and western blot analyses. Under normal growth conditions, there was no significant difference in the growth of the transgenic plants and the non-transgenic controls. However, when exposed to various stresses such as salt or arsenic, transgenic plants showed a significantly lower accumulation of hydrogen peroxide and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances than control plants. We speculate that the high levels of MsHsp23 proteins in the transgenic plants protect leaves from oxidative damage through chaperon and antioxidant activities. These results suggest that MsHsp23 confers abiotic stress tolerance in transgenic tall fescue and may be useful in developing stress tolerance in other crops. Compared with traditional plant breeding, genetic engineering provides a relatively fast and precise means of achieving improved stress tolerance of forage crops. Development of forage crops that are more tolerant to various abiotic stresses could lead to the use of more new lands for cultivation.

Most forage crops growing under field conditions are often being exposed to various environmental stresses such as drought, freezing, high temperature, waterlogging and climate change. A combination of grass breeding approaches will likely be needed to improve significantly the environmental stresses tolerance of forage crops in the field. Attempts have been taken by grass breeders to develop tolerant varieties of different crops for environmental stress. A new tall fescue variety (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) named ‘Purumi’ was developed by the National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration from 1999 to 2007. For synthetic seed production of this new variety, 5 superior clones, EFa9108, EFa0010, EFa0020, EFa0108, and EFa0202 were selected and polycrossed. The agronomic growth characteristics and forage production capability of the seeds were studied at Cheonan from 2004 to 2005, and regional trials were conducted in Cheonan, Pyungchang, Jeju, and Jinju from 2008 to 2010. ‘Purumi’ showed enhanced winter hardiness, disease resistance, and regrowth ability as compared to ‘Fawn’. The dry matter yield of ‘Purumi’ was about 5.6% higher as 16,821kg/ha than that of ‘Fawn’. However, the nutritive value of both varieties was similar. When this new variety of tall fescue, Purumi, has been developed and distributed with its most remarkable adaptability for Korean climates and superior value as a livestock feed, it is expected to play an important role for a new restoration of the pasture industry in Korea.

“Onnuri” is a new orchardgrass(Dactylis glomerata L.) variety developed by the National Institue of Animal Science (NIAS) in 2011. To develope the new variety of orchardgrass, 5 superior clones were selected and polycrossed for seed production. Agronomic growth characteristics and forage production of “Onnuri” were examined at Cheonan from 2009 to 2011, and regional trials were conducted in Cheonan, Pyungchang Jinzu and Jeju from 2009 to 2011, respectively. “Onnuri” showed medium type growth habit in fall and spring and medium in length of flag leaf and long upper internode. Plant height of “Onnuri” was more than 10cm that of standard variety, “Amba” and heading date was 5 days earlyer than 16th May compared to Amba. Characteristics such as waterlogging, disease resistance of “Onnuri” were stronger or better than those of Amba, specially “Onnuri” showed 18% higher dry matter yield (14,775kg/ha) compared to Amaba(12,523kg/ha). Nutritive value was appeared to be similar in both varieties.

Italian Ryegrass is a high productivity and feed value, and an upright grass that behaves like a biennial or short-lived perennial. It grows vigorously in winter and early spring. Italian ryegrass and a related species, perennial ryegrass, Lolium perenne, are the two common weedy ryegrassses. Italian ryegrass and perennial ryegrass can hybridize, resulting in offspring that are difficult to identify as either species. Ryegrasses are cultivated for turf and forage. Sometimes Italian ryegrass is grown as cover crop. It has the potential to produce high yields and, with proper management, can be high quality with good animal performance. To develop of a high quality, productivity and early variety, 20 varieties examined growth and yield characteristics. The heading date of Green farm with high cold tolerance was on 28 April. Most of Introduced varieties except Grazer have mid and late heading date.

Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) is one of important forage crop grass widely cultivated in Korea. Progress in breeding using conventional selection procedure is very slow, since Italian ryegrass is highly self-infertile. Biotechnological approaches, therefore, may contribute to the development of improved cultivars for forage crops. In an effort to optimize tissue culture responses of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) for future genetic manipulations to improve forage characteristics, the effects of culture medium supplements on tissue culture responses were investigated with mature seeds of Korean Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) seven cultivars as explant tissues.

Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) is one of important forage crop grass widely cultivated in Korea. The genetic manipulation of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) necessitates a reliable and efficient, genotype-independent method of transformation. We are interested in developing molecular breeding methods to improve its nutritional quality and abiotic stress resistance. Development of a rapid and efficient transformation system is the basis for genetic manipulation of Italian ryegrass. In order to establish an efficient Agrobacterium-mediated transformation system was applied to transfer genes into seven genotypes of Italian ryegress, namely cv. 'Kogreen', 'Kopeed', 'Kowinearly', 'Kowinmaster', 'Hwasan 101', 'Hwasan104' and 'Kowinner.' The transformation system developed in this study would be useful for Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation of Italian ryegrass plants with genes of agronomic importance.