Red Clover Breeding and Genetics

Abstract

Publisher Summary Red clover, Trifolium pratense L., has been a significant forage legume among agricultural crops. Red clover is adapted to a wide range of soil types, pH levels, and environmental conditions. This plasticity has enabled red clover to retain its usefulness for hay, silage, pasture, and soil improvement in much of the temperate region of the world. Red clover is a nitrogen-fixing legume, thus contributing to the supply of nitrogen available in the soil for subsequent crops. Red clover is a self-incompatible cross-pollinated species that, under natural conditions, produces very few self-seed. The mechanism of self-incompatibility is the one-locus, gametophytic S-allele system in which plants with the same S-alleles are prevented from selfing by slow growth of pollen tubes through styles. The system also prevents cross-fertilization of plants that have the same S-allele genotype. Details of the S-allele systems in red clover have been investigated by inbreeding via pseudo-self-compatibility (PSC).