Prospection of cowpea genotypes for green-grain production

Abstract

Cowpea is a nutritious species cultivated worldwide whose high genetic variability can be exploited in breeding programs. The present study aimed to identify phenotypically divergent genotypes of Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp., from this perspective concerning agronomic and physiological variables aiming at green grain production. An experiment was conducted in Fortaleza -CE, to analyse 13 variables in 44 genotypes from the Active Germplasm Bank of the Federal University of Ceará. The experiment was set up in an augmented block design with four additional controls (commercial cultivars). The genetic and environmental variance components were estimated by restricted maximum likelihood, after which the intraclass correlation coeffi cient (ICC) was calculated. Principal components analysis, Tocher's clustering and correlation analysis were used in the study. The variables most infl uenced by genetic variance were production per plant, green pod length, green grain length, grain mass per pod, and total yield, with ICC > 0.5. Principal components analysis signalled the physiological variables gs, ci, and ci.ca and the agronomic variables of green pod length, green grain mass, number of grains per pod, and earliness of production as important for differentiating between cowpea genotypes. CE genotypes 02, 151, 165, 172, 189, 244, 986, and 1002 show genetic variability, and their use is recommended in cowpea breeding programs aimed at green-grain production.

Combining ability of cowpea genotypes for green grain production

“…The genetic variability in cowpea accessions reported by Pessoa et al (2022) for the Active Cowpea Germplasm Bank (BAG) of the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), in northeastern Brazil, has highlighted the potential of these genotypes for green grain production. From this perspective, given the results obtained in previous research and the demand for new green grain cultivars, this study aimed to identify cowpea parents and hybrids with good combining abilities that could assist in identifying promising genotypes to initiate a breeding program aimed at the production of cowpea green grains.…”

“…The plant material was obtained from the Active Cowpea Germplasm Bank at UFC, consisting of four genotypes (UFC-02, UFC-957, UFC-999, and UFC-1002) and one commercial cultivar (BRS Juruá) (Table 1), selected based on their genetic variability for morpho-agronomic traits (Pessoa et al, 2022), in addition to 10 hybrids resulting from crosses between these parents.…”