ABSTRACT
Desirable traits such as pest and stress resistances/tolerances, quality traits etc. needed to improve cultivated species are often found in their wild relatives. However, differences in their ploidy levels and genomic compositions can prevent hybridization, and when hybrids are recovered various levels and forms of sterility occur. Germplasm from wild species can be used with various levels of success by using colchicine to double chromosome numbers, developing bridging hybrids, and using genetic mechanisms that control chromosome/genome segregation in Pennisetum species. When vegetative propagation is a possibility, as is the case with Cynodon and Zoysia hybrids, the chances of successfully using germplasm from polyploid wild species in a breeding program has a much higher potential because sterility issues are circumvented. Germplasm from wild species have been successfully used to incorporate valuable traits into commercial hybrids and to improve germplasm of Pennisetum and Cynodon species. Interspecific Paspalum hybrids have been used to establish the phylogenetic relationships of several Paspalum species, including determining the origin of apomictic common dallisgrass.
