Cultivar & Germplasm Releases 2023

Forage Bermudagrass

Breeder: Bill Anderson

80-10 provides BSM tolerance, high yields, good quality, fine stem, and easy establishment for pasture and hay production. This breeding line is being released as a cultivar, with certified sprigs produced by licensed producers, such that material will be more likely be kept pure, as is done with turf cultivars.

Miscanthus

Breeders: Wayne Hanna & Brian Schwartz

2018-M78st is a derivative of M10 mutagenized to reduce its seed set. The reduced seed set will increase the use of this species due to its reduced invasive potential. M78st tends to have similar morphological characteristics of Miscanthus sinensis var. zebrinus ‘M10’, a popular ornamental cultivar. A license and trademark name is underway for this genotype.

Peanut

Developers: Juliet Chu & Peggy Ozias-Akins

TifGP-8: M133; PI 701083 (A) and TifGP-9: M2; PI 701084 (B) are TILLING lines being released as a germplasm resource.  A) line 133 carries the mutation in Ara h 1.02 and was designated as TifGP-8, and is a homozygous mutant for Ara h 1.02.  Tifrunner wild type control has the 230 bp fragment but lacks the 293 bp fragment.  B) 2M3 harbors a mutation for Ara h 2.02 and was designated as TifGP-9.  Ara h 1 and 2 are recognized as major peanut allergens.  Reduction of major allergen accumulation in peanut products will reduce the allergenicity of peanut and potentially alleviate the severity of allergic response.   It is expected that mitigating peanut allergen production through mutation breeding will reduce the health risk to allergic populations.

Breeder:  Bill Branch

Georgia-23RKN is a normal-oleic, root-knot nematode (RKN) resistant, runner-type peanut cultivar. It has a flat decumbent runner growth habit and medium+ maturity.  It also has a high level of resistance to tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV). For the past several years, field observations and data indicate that these characteristics of Georgia-23RKN are very uniform and stable, and no off-types or variants have been found. This line was tested as GA 12254. Foundation seed is currently being increased for licensing.

 Breeder:  Corley Holbrook

CB 7 is a high-oleic peanut genotype with a high level of resistance to leaf spot and TSWV. When evaluated under full fungicide spray regimes, CB 7 yielded at least equivalent to other common peanut cultivars. CB 7 had higher yields than Georgia 06G when tested with no fungicide control for leaf spot. Growing CB 7 with reduced fungicide sprays can be used to maximize on farm profitability. This cultivar is a joint release from USDA-ARS and UGA, and will be released this spring.

Seashore Paspalum 

Breeder: Paul Raymer

UGP73 has excellent turf quality over a wide range of mowing heights and has often outperformed Salam, SeaIsle 1, SeaStar, Platinum, and SeaDwarf. It has excellent genetic color often better than Salam, SeaIsle , SeaStar, Platinum, and SeaDwarf, and has demonstrated superior drought tolerance to SeaStar in non-irrigated trials and over a wide range of irrigation regimes. The salt tolerance of UGP 73 is similar to that of SeaStar and better than that of SeaIsle 1. UGP 73 has also demonstrated better tolerance to 60% shade than has Platinum and SeaStar. It is licensed non-exclusively to two sod growers.  Also, it made news recently in a Golf Course Industry publication.

Soybean

Breeder: Zenglu Li

• G16-8779 is an MG VI line, which has been tested over a total of 42 environments across southeastern USA. It has demonstrated good yield performance and adaptation compared to the elite commercial GMO varieties available from seed companies. In the 2020-2022 USDA Uniform Soybean Tests - MG VI across 19 locations, it yielded equivalently to AG64X8 RR2X, a current RR2Xtend commercial variety. G16-8779 possesses resistance to peanut root-knot nematode and moderate resistance to Javanese root-knot nematode and SCN race 3. It provides resistance to frogeye leaf spot and stem canker.  G16-8779 will provide a good yielding conventional soybean cultivar with resistance to frogeye leaf spot and stem canker to the growers in southeastern USA.

• G17-5173R2 is glyphosate tolerant (RR2Y) line with superior performance in yield and agronomic traits. In the tests conducted during 2018-2022, it performed better than any of the commercial check varieties.  It possesses superior resistance to chewing insects. To our knowledge, this is the first high-yielding soybean cultivar that provides resistance to leaf-chewing insects with native genes. G17-5173R2 also provides resistance to soybean cyst nematode race 3, southern root-knot nematode, and frogeye leaf spot, and moderate resistance to SNC race 14. Release of G17-5173R2 will provide a high yielding RR2Y soybean cultivar with superior insect, nematode and disease resistance to the growers in southeastern USA.

• G21-245R2X is an RR2Xtend, MG VIII breeding line and yielded similarly or better than the commercial check varieties in multiple tests. In addition, G21- 245R2X possesses superior resistance to soybean cyst nematodes, southern root-knot nematode, peanut root-knot nematode, Javanese root-knot nematode and frogeye leaf spot. Release of this line will provide high yielding cultivars for soybean growers with advanced herbicide-tolerance technologies for better weed control and a good defensive package.

Wheat 

Breeder: Mohamed Mergoum

GA12230-1 -6-6-3 -20E36 is high yielding with good resistance to Hessian fly, rusts, and FHB. It is a medium late maturing, awned, and a medium tall line with good test weight and quality attributes. Based on the data from the regional SUNGRAINS SUNWHEAT nurseries in 2021 GA12230-1 -6-6-3 -20E36 showed good performance as medium-late line, in many locations in the SE region. Overall, GA12230-1 -6-6-3 -20E36 performed similar or better than most checks in GA. It also performed equal or better than checks for grain yield in other State OVT trials.