Inheritance of morphological traits and pod features in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Abstract

TMV-2, a commercially cultivated Spanish bunch (ssp. fastigiata) variety on treatment with ethyl methane sulphonate (0.2%) had earlier resulted in a subspecific mutant i.e. narrow leaf mutant (NLM) with Virginia type (ssp. hypogaea) habit and narrow leaflets. TMV-2 and its mutant NLM differ from one another in many morphological traits. To know the inheritance of morphological traits, both direct (TMV-2 x NLM) and reciprocal (NLM x TMV-2) crosses were made during the rainy season 2001 and studied for their behaviour in subsequent generations viz., F1, F2 and F3 during the postrainy 2001, rainy 2002 and post-rainy 2002 seasons, respectively. The results indicated that growth habit, mainstem flowering, branching pattern, leaflet shape are under the control of two genes each, while albinism, pod beak, pod constriction and pod size are under the control of three genes each with different gene action.