No abstract

The study aimed to assess variation in mineral compositions of some accessions of Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea [L.] Verdc.) for domestic use and genetic enhancement. Twenty accessions of Bambara groundnut were planted in a Randomised Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The five minerals were analysed which include, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc and manganese. These accessions showed significant (P˂0.05) variations across the five mineral analysed. Accession no. 18 had the highest mean for iron (2.89 mg100g -1 ), Accession no. 12 had the highest mean value for zinc (0.65 mg100g -1 ) Accession no. 8 had the highest mean value for calcium (217.36 mg100g -1 ), magnesium (14.29 mg100g -1 ) and manganese (0.82 mg100g -1 ). However, accession no. 12 had the lowest mean values in four of the minerals except zinc. This result showed that some of these accessions could be selected for genetic enhancement of minerals, some for domestic use and some for industrial use.

The effects of nitrous acid on the agronomic parameters of foxtail millet were investigated. Seeds with nitrous acid treatments and untreated seeds (control) were planted in a Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD) for two generations. The following data collected: percent germination, plant height, leaf number, length, and width, fresh and dry weights, number of days to 50% flowering, panicle length, and weight, and 1000-seed weight. Significant variations were observed in plant height, leaf number and length, fresh and dry weights, panicle length and weight, and 1000-seed weight in the control. Plant height, leaf length, fresh weight and dry weight had highest mean values at 0.1% nitrous acid. Number of leaves and panicle length and weight were highest at 0.4% concentration, while 1000-seed weight was highest with 0.3% nitrous acid. From this experiment, nitrous acid proved to be effective in inducing mutations that increased quantitative traits of the foxtail millet. The mutations have great potentials which can be harnessed for use in a breeding program.

This study was carried out to determine the frequency of lethality, Mutagenic frequency, effectiveness and efficiency induced by ethyl methane sulphonate (EMS) and sodium azide on foxtail millet. The seeds were treated with different concentrations of EMS and sodium azide. Number of morphological mutant were observed visually and recorded. Mutagenic frequency, effectiveness and efficiency were highest for EMS at 0.1% concentration (Mutagenic frequency 7.50% effectiveness 18.75% and efficiency 7.50%) and sodium azide at 0.2% concentration (Mutagenic frequency 7.00%, effectiveness 1.84% and efficiency 1%). Lower concentrations of EMS and sodium azide were more effective and efficient in inducing mutation with low biological damages and high mutation frequency. EMS was more effective and efficient in inducing variability in foxtail millet than sodium azide. Therefore, mutants foxtail millet with low biological damages and high mutation frequency can be developed at low concentration of EMS and sodium azide for breeding of foxtail millet.

In this study, two accessions of Bambara groundnut were exposed to fast neutrons Americium-Beryllium (AmBe) source with flux of 1.5 ×10 4 ncm -2 s -1 for different hours to raise M1 generation. The data recorded were percentage germination, plant height, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf width, days to 50% flowering, number of pods per plant, fresh weight of plants, dry weight of plants, dry weight of pods, weight of seeds and100 seeds weight. There was variation in morphological and yield parameters for Black accession. In the Cream accession, days to 50% flowering, number of pods per plant, fresh weight of plants, dry weight of plants, dry weight of pods, weight of seeds and100 seeds weight were significantly different. Treatment at 16 h performed best for plant height, leaf length, number of leaves, weight of seed per plant and 100 seed weight in Black accession while Cream performed best at 8 h exposure time. Fast neutron was observed to improve the performance of Bambara groundnut, thus can be used in breeding programme for Bambara groundnut.