Genetic analysis of resistance to pod shattering in soybean (Glycine max. (L) Merrill).

2014

English

Pod shattering (dehiscence) is a major constraint to soybean (Glycine max. (L) Merrill) production in the northern savanna zones of Ghana, but research on improving soybean for resistance to shattering is scanty. Genetic analysis of resistance to pod shattering was undertaken on three soybean crosses involving resistant and susceptible varieties to determine broad-sense (h2 bs) and narrow-sense (h2 ns) heritability, minimum number of genes (MNG) involved cytoplasmic inheritance, and allelic relationship between shattering and non-shattering. Mean h2 bs was 0.92 (range 0.90–0.95), and mean h2 ns was 0.46 (range 0.40–0.53), indicating the importance of both additive and non-additive variances and that shattering resistance can be improved through breeding. Mean MNG controlling shattering resistance was 2 (range 1–3), indicating that genes for shattering resistance differed among parental lines. There was no difference between the mean of any F1 population and it’s reciprocal, indicating lack of maternal/cytoplasmic influence and that the character was under nuclear gene control. Observed F2 ratios revealed that inheritance of resistance to pod shattering in soybean was qualitative in nature and under the influence of either duplicate recessive or dominant and recessive epistasis, depending on the parental genotypes used in the cross.

Mohammed, H.; Akromah, R.; Abudulai, M.; Mashark, S.; Issah, A.