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Providing the growing population with
quality diet under the changing climate requires
renewed efforts on the breeding of orphan grain
legumes that need to be adequately characterized for
accelerated cultivar development, particularly in sub-
Saharan Africa where food and nutritional insecurity
remains a critical challenge. In this study, the phenotypic
diversity of a West African germplasm of
Kersting’s groundnut was determined and the possibility
for indirect selection explored. In total, 297
accessions collected across diverse ecological zones in
Benin and Togo were assessed using 19 descriptors in
two contrasting environments. Correlation and path
coefficients analyses were performed to determine
association patterns among variables. Hierarchical
cluster analysis was carried out to group accessions
having similar performance across locations. Based on
the results, the diversity panel was categorized into
four clusters with clusters 2 and 4 containing the best
performing accessions. Significant moderate phenotypic
correlation was detected between seed coat
colour and days to 50% flowering (r = - 0.63).
Likewise, significant and moderate to strong positive
genetic correlations were observed between grain
yield with number of seeds per pod (rg = 0.60), 100
seed weight (rg = 0.70), number of seeds per plant
(rg = 0.96) and number of pods per plant (rg = 0.90).
However, significant weak negative correlations were
revealed among grain yield, days to 50% flowering
(rg = - 0.32) and days to maturity (rg = - 0.30).
Moreover, high direct effects were detected among
grain yield and number of seeds per plant, 100 seed
weight and days to 50% flowering. The findings imply
that indirect selection for grain yield in Kersting’s
groundnut, using 100 seed weight, number of seeds per
plant and days to 50% flowering could be relevant to
increase the efficiency of breeding programmes.
Accessions 02_AF169, 02_AF51, 02_AF202,
02_AF222, 02_AF196, 02_AF100, 02_AF255,
02_AF216, 02_AF223 and 02_AF199 could also be
used as parental lines for the development of high
yielding varieties. |