Quantifying the risks of pollen contamination during regeneration of genetic resources of forage legumes

ICONFORS is a 4 year EU funded project that aims to acquire the genetic and economic knowledge to improve seed multiplication methodologies for genebanks of forage species. Regeneration in pollen and insect proof isolation chambers is being compared with regeneration outside using a barrier crop to reduce pollen movement. Experiments on the perennial insect-pollinated, forage legume white clover (Trifolium repens L.) have been undertaken at I.G.E.R., Aberystwyth to quantify the extent of cross-contamination between field plots of white clover and the extent of contamination of white clover from nearby feral populations. The experiment has used novel leaf markers, a red leaf mark ‘dominant’ and S100 no-mark that are readily visible in seedlings, enabling many thousands of progeny to be visually screened. The results of this study are presented and implications for field regeneration of insect-pollinated species considered.