Genetic Resources from Dactylis glomerata and Phalaris arundinacea Collected on Marginal Land Sites in Europe

Dactylis glomerata and Phalaris arundinacea are two C3 forage grasses with a circumboreal distribution with a potential for biomass applications. We assessed the genetic  diversity, and thus the potential for breeding improvements and adaptation to different climatic and soil conditions in the Northern and central European context, and undertook  collections for both species in five northern European countries along West/East and North/ South clines. The accessions were genotyped by next generation sequencing to obtain a large number of markers without having to rely on existing genomic resources.