G C A T T A C G G C A T genes Article Flow Cytometry-Based Determination of Ploidy from Dried Leaf Specimens in Genomically Complex Collections of the Tropical Forage Grass Urochloa s. l. Paulina Tomaszewska 1,* , Till K. Pellny 2, Luis M. Hernández 3, Rowan A. C. Mitchell 2, Valheria Castiblanco 3, José J. de Vega 4, Trude Schwarzacher 1 and Pat (J.S.) Heslop-Harrison 1 1 Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK;
[email protected] (T.S.);
[email protected] (P.H.-H.) 2 Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK;
[email protected] (T.K.P.);
[email protected] (R.A.C.M.) 3 International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali 6713, Colombia;
[email protected] (L.M.H.);
[email protected] (V.C.) 4 Earlham Institute, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7UZ, UK;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Urochloa (including Brachiaria, Megathyrus and some Panicum) tropical grasses are native to Africa and are now, after selection and breeding, planted worldwide, particularly in South America, Citation: Tomaszewska, P.; Pellny, as important forages with huge potential for further sustainable improvement and conservation of T.K.; Hernández, L.M.; Mitchell, grasslands. We aimed to develop an optimized approach to determine ploidy of germplasm collection R.A.C.; Castiblanco, V.; de Vega, J.J.; of this tropical forage grass group using dried leaf material, including approaches to collect, dry Schwarzacher, T.; Heslop-Harrison, P.