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US-12622402-B2 - Alfalfa variety H0416C4115

US12622402B2US 12622402 B2US12622402 B2US 12622402B2US-12622402-B2

Abstract

The invention relates to the alfalfa variety designated H0416C4115. Provided by the invention are the seeds, plants and derivatives of the alfalfa variety H0416C4115. Also provided by the invention are tissue cultures of the alfalfa variety H0416C4115 and the plants regenerated therefrom. Still further provided by the invention are methods for producing alfalfa plants by crossing the alfalfa variety H0416C4115 with itself or another alfalfa variety and plants produced by such methods.

Inventors

  • Charles A. Rodgers
  • Mark McCaslin

Assignees

  • FORAGE GENETICS INTERNATIONAL, LLC

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20240227

Claims (17)

  1. 1 . A population of seeds of alfalfa variety H0416C4115, wherein representative seeds of said alfalfa variety have been deposited under NCMA Accession No. 202310005.
  2. 2 . A population of plants grown from the population of seeds of claim 1 .
  3. 3 . A composition comprising the population of seeds of claim 1 that is comprised in plant seed growth media.
  4. 4 . The composition of claim 3 , wherein the plant seed growth media is soil or a synthetic cultivation media.
  5. 5 . A method for producing a population of first generation progeny alfalfa seeds, the method comprising crossing the population of plants of claim 2 with a second alfalfa plant or inter-pollinating the population of plants of claim 2 and harvesting the resultant alfalfa seeds.
  6. 6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the second alfalfa plant population is a population of plants of alfalfa variety H0416C4115; wherein representative seed of said alfalfa variety have been deposited under NCMA Accession No. 202310005.
  7. 7 . A population of first generation progeny alfalfa seeds produced by the method of claim 6 ; wherein the method comprises inter-pollinating the population of plants grown from the population of seeds of alfalfa variety H0416C4115, wherein representative seed of said alfalfa variety have been deposited under NCMA Accession No. 202310005; and wherein the population of plants produced from the first generation progeny alfalfa seeds has all of the physiological and morphological characteristics of said alfalfa variety H0416C4115.
  8. 8 . A population of alfalfa plants produced by growing the seeds of claim 7 ; wherein the population of plants produced has all of the physiological and morphological characteristics of said alfalfa variety H0416C4115.
  9. 9 . A method of vegetatively propagating the population of plants of claim 2 , the method comprising the steps of: (a) collecting tissue samples capable of being propagated from the population of plants of claim 2 ; (b) cultivating the tissue to obtain proliferated shoots; and (c) rooting the proliferated shoots to obtain rooted plantlets.
  10. 10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising growing a plant from the rooted plantlets.
  11. 11 . A method of modifying a population of alfalfa plants, wherein the method comprises introducing a transgene into the population of plants of claim 2 .
  12. 12 . A population of alfalfa plants produced by the method of claim 11 ; wherein the population of alfalfa plants produced comprises the transgene and otherwise comprises all of the physiological and morphological characteristics of said alfalfa variety H0416C4115.
  13. 13 . The population of plants of claim 12 , wherein the transgene comprises a nucleic acid sequence that enables site-specific genetic recombination or confers a trait selected from the group consisting of male sterility, herbicide tolerance, insect resistance, pest resistance, disease resistance, improved digestibility, improved energy content, improved forage yield, improved seed yield, improved winterhardiness, improved nitrogen fixation, modified fatty acid metabolism, abiotic stress resistance, flowering time, altered seed amino acid composition, and modified carbohydrate metabolism.
  14. 14 . A method for introducing a transgene into a population of alfalfa plants, the method comprising the steps of: (a) modifying a plant of the population of plants of claim 2 by introducing a transgene; and (b) crossing the modified population of alfalfa plants of step (a) with a population of alfalfa plants to produce a population of progeny plants, wherein at least a progeny plant comprises the transgene.
  15. 15 . The method of claim 14 , further comprising the step of: (c) applying a selection technique to the population produced in step (b) to select said progeny plants that comprise the transgene.
  16. 16 . A method of producing a synthetic alfalfa variety, the method comprising inter-pollinating the plants of claim 2 with plants of a second alfalfa variety.
  17. 17 . A method of producing a commodity plant product, the method comprising obtaining the population of plants of claim 2 and producing the commodity plant product from the population of plants, wherein the commodity plant product is selected from the group consisting of sprouts, forage, hay, greenchop, and silage.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates generally to the field of alfalfa breeding. In particular, the invention relates to the novel alfalfa variety H0416C4115. Description of Related Art There are numerous steps in the development of any novel plant germplasm. Plant breeding begins with the analysis and definition of problems and weaknesses of the current germplasm, the establishment of program goals, and the definition of specific breeding objectives. The next step is selection of germplasm that exhibit the traits to meet the program goals. The goal is to combine in a single variety an improved combination of traits from the parental germplasm. These selection traits may include higher forage yield; increased seed yield; improved feed quality, including improved digestability and improved milk conversion by ruminant animals; resistance to diseases and insects; augmented stems and roots; increased abiotic stress tolerance; increased drought and heat tolerance; strong stand establishment; improved agronomic quality and standability traits; resistance to herbicides; winter hardiness; and improvements in compositional traits to meet current and future agronomic practices. Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), also known as lucerne, is a valuable forage legume. Thus, a goal of plant breeders is to develop stable, high-yielding alfalfa varieties that are agronomically sound. The reasons for this goal include, but are not limited to, maximizing the amount of commodity plant product, e.g., hay, pasture, and silage, produced on the land used; supplying food for humans and animals; and replenishing nutrients depleted from the soil. To accomplish this goal, the breeder must select and develop alfalfa plants that have the traits that result in agronomically superior varieties. Alfalfa is grown worldwide as forage for livestock, especially cattle. Alfalfa is among the highest-yielding forage crop species, but it is the combination of high yield and nutritional quality that make alfalfa such a valuable crop. Alfalfa is most often harvested as hay, but is also grazed, made into silage, and fed as greenchop. Alfalfa is primarily used to feed high-producing dairy cows, but is also a food source for beef cattle, horses, sheep, goats, rabbits, and poultry. Humans consume alfalfa sprouts and incorporate dehydrated alfalfa into dietary supplements. Alfalfa, like other legumes, have root nodules that contain Sinorhizobium meliloti, bacteria that are effective at fixing nitrogen. Alfalfa therefore is also utilized to replenish nitrogen following crops without the ability to fix nitrogen in crop rotation. The commercial production of seeds for growing alfalfa varieties normally involves three stages, the production of breeder, foundation, and then certified seed. Breeder seed is the initial seed produced by an intercross of selected parental plants, and thus represents the initial generation of an experimental cultivar. A portion of the breeder seed is then used for small plot forage trials and characterization of the alfalfa variety. Another portion of the breeder seed can be grown in isolation from other alfalfa plants to produce the foundation seed. Foundation seed is then grown in isolation from other alfalfa plants to produce the certified seed. The certified seed is typically what is sold for commercial crop production. Allele frequencies across breeder, foundation, and certified seed are maintained. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One aspect of the present invention relates to seed of alfalfa variety H0416C4115. Another aspect of invention relates to plants produced by growing a seed of alfalfa variety H0416C4115 and any plant part thereof. A plant part as recited herein may be, but is not limited to, leaves, roots, root tips, root hairs, anthers, pistils, stamens, pollen, ovules, flowers, seeds, embryos, stems, buds, cotyledons, hypocotyls, cells and protoplasts. The invention further provides a tissue culture of regenerable cells or protoplasts and the alfalfa plants that may be regenerated from such a tissue culture. The regenerable cells and protoplasts of the invention may be derived from a plant of alfalfa variety H0416C4115 or plant part thereof, and the plants regenerated therefrom are capable of expressing all the morphological and physiological characteristics of a plant grown from a seed of alfalfa variety H0416C4115. In a further aspect, the invention provides a composition comprising a seed of alfalfa variety H0416C4115 that is comprised in plant seed growth media. In certain embodiments, the plant seed growth media is a soil or synthetic cultivation medium. In specific embodiments, the growth media may be comprised in a container or may, for example, be soil in a field. Plant seed growth media are well known to those of skill in the art and include, but are in no way limited to, soil or synthetic cultivation medium. Plant seed growth media can provide adequate physical support for