Inheritance studies of plant height, pod and seed attributes in F2 genertion of certain groundnut (arachis hypogaea l.) crosses.

Inheritance of plant height, pod length, pod width, seed length and seed width was studied in a set of crosses grown during rabi 2007-08. F2 phenotypic data for plant height was a good fit to a phenotypic ratio of 1:4:6:4:1 and 1:2:1 respectively in two crosses studied indicating the involvement of more than two genes. Segregation of pod length in F2 generation of the cross ICGV 00350 x K 1340, was a good fit to a phenotypic ratio of 45 medium short : 19 long pods while in the cross ICGV 00350 x TG 37A segregation of pod length was a good fit to a phenotypic ratio of 1 long : 2 medium : 1 short pod length. Segregation of pod width in the crosses ICGV 00350 x K 1340 and ICGV 00350 x TG 37A presented a good fit to a phenotypic ratio of 3 high width: 1 medium width pods, while in the cross ICGV 00350 x Jyothi, F2 segregation data was a good fit to a phenotypic ratio of 1 high width: 2 medium width: 1 low width pods. F2 segregation of seed length in the cross ICGV 00350 x K 1340 was a good fit to a phenotypic ratio of 13 long medium: 3 short. Segregation of seed width in F2 generation of the crosses K 1340 x TCGS 888 and K 1340 x Narayani was a good fit to a phenotypic ratio of 15 medium low : 1 high width and 3 low : 1 medium width seeds.

Variability, heritability and genetic advances in F2 generation of 15 crosses involving bold-seeded genotypes in groundnut (arachis hypogaea l.).

Significant differences were observed among F2 population of fifteen single crosses and parents for all characters. Plant height, number of primary branches, number of secondary branches, pod yield/plant showed higher values of Genotypic Co-efficient of Variation (GCV) and Phenotypic Coefficient of Variation (PCV), heritability (broad sense) and Genetic Advance as per cent of Mean (GAM). The role of additive gene action seems to be significant in the inheritance of these traits. Thus phenotypic selection is early generations would help to make improvement in these characters. Number of mature pods and number of immature pods showed low to moderate values of GCV, PCV, heritability (broad sense) and GAM. The role of non-additive gene action seems to be significant in the inheritance of these traits. In these characters, early generation selection followed by biparental matings and selection in later generations would help to isolate lines with improvement in these traits. Shelling out-turn and sound mature kernel percentage were found to be governed by both additive and non-additive gene action.