Diallel Analysis and Heritability of Grain Yield, Yield Components, and Maturity Traits in Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata(L.) Walp.)

Abstract

Information on combining ability and reciprocal effects (REC) facilitates efficient utilization of genetic materials in a breeding program. This study was conducted (at the CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, Ghana) to determine general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA), heritability, genetic advance, GCA, and SCA effects as well as the relationship between parents per se performance and progenies for yield components and maturity traits in cowpea. The test populations were derived using a 5 × 5 complete diallel cross of parents with different yield attributes and maturity durations. The results indicated that GCA was predominant for number of days to 90% pod maturity, plant height at maturity, and hundred-seed weight. This showed that genes with additive effects conditioned these traits. Padi-Tuya, Songotra, and IT86D-610 were identified as good general combiners for grain yield, while Sanzi-Nya was identified as a general combiner for developing extra-early duration cowpea varieties. Crosses Songotra × Sanzi-Nya, SARC-1-57-2 × IT86D-610, Songotra × SARC-1-57-2, and Padi-Tuya × Songotra were identified as good specific combiners for days to 50% flowering, pod length, pods per plant, pod yield, grain yield, and seeds per pod. The findings from this study provide useful information on the inheritance of early maturity and yield traits in cowpea. This can be exploited to develop high yielding and early maturing cowpea varieties as climate smart strategy to mitigate climate change via breeding methods such as pedigree selection and marker assisted backcrossing (MABC). Pedigree selection method is being used to develop varieties from the hybrid with high and significant SCA for grain yield, whereas the development of extra-early duration varieties via MABC with Sanzi-Nya (general combiner for earliness traits) as a donor parent is ongoing.

Elucidation of gene action and combining ability for productive tillering in spring barley

“…There are many publications that reported the results of evaluation of gene action and combining ability in very different crops. For example in rice (Ambikabathy et al, 2021;Del Águila & da Silva, 2021;Gaballah et al, 2022), maize (Yu et al, 2020;Coelho, 2021;Sabitha et al, 2021), sweet corn (Khan et al, 2020), cowpea (Owusu et al, 2020), papaya (Vettorazzi et al, 2021), cotton (Giri et al, 2021;Mudhalvan et al, 2021), eggplants (Datta et al, 2021), groundnut (Daudi et al, 2021), common bean (Nkhata et al, 2021).…”

Genetic control of earliness in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L) Walp)

“…The early to medium maturing lines were Padi-Tuya (70-75 days to physiological maturity), Kirkhouse-Benga (65-70 days to physiological maturity), and Wang-Kae (65-70 days to physiological maturity). The three extra-early maturing lines used were Sanzi-Nya (50 days to physiological maturity) (Owusu et al, 2020), Tobonaa (50 days to physiological maturity) and CB27 (55 days to physiological maturity) (Ehlers et al, 2000).…”

Combining Ability Analysis in Spring Barley (Hordeum Vulgare L.) for Yield Traits

“…Combining ability analysis allows the evaluation of the genetic properties of the crop genotypes and traits with their nature of inheritance, which makes the researcher anticipate the results of crosses in the future and focus on promising material, saving time from useless hybrids. To determine the general (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effects and gene action through hybridization employs the half and full diallel and line-bytester schemes (Griffing, 1956;Kaeppler, 2012;Kanfany et al, 2018;Bouchetat and Aissat, 2019) and the system of top crossbreeding (Savchenko, 1984;Patil et al, 2012;Owusu et al, 2020). The top cross method for assessing the combining ability effects is more economical and less laborious compared with the diallel analysis and also allows the breeder to obtain valuable information about the inbred lines and their hybrid populations.…”