Application of biotechnology to forage plants breeding

This paper summarized the main research progress of biotechnology on forage plants breeding in the past 20 years. It includes: application prospect of plant cell and tissue culture for gemplasm conservation; somatic hybridization and embryo rescue to overcome hybrid barrier between species; technologies of molecular marker and transgenic plant for improvement of forage quality, resistance to disease , pest and abiotic stress; and transgenic plant as a bioreactor.