Inheritance of fresh seed dormancy in Spanish-type peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.): bias introduced by inadvertent selfed flowers as revealed by microsatellite markers control

Abstract

Production and seed quality in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) can be reduced substantially by in situ germination under unpredictable rainfed environments. Inheritance of fresh seed dormancy in Spanish x Spanish crosses was studied with two sets of segregating populations, an F2 population derived from true F1 hybrids identified with peanut microsatellites markers and other populations (F2, BC1P1Sand BC1P2S) from randomly-selected F1 individuals. In the F2 population developed with true F1 hybrids, the chi square test was not significant for the deviation from the expected 3:1 (dormant: non-dormant) ratio. In addition, the bimodal frequency distribution curve with the F2 population gave more evidence that fresh seed dormancy is controlled by a single dominant gene. The average frequency (48%) of true F1 hybrids give evidence that deviations from expected ratios in the populations (F2 and BC1P1S) developed from non-tested F1 individuals, is most likely due to inadvertent selfs. This study emphasized the need to identify with molecular markers the cross progenies in self-pollinated crops as peanut before testing for any trait.   Key words: Peanut, true F1 hybrids, fresh seed dormancy, SSR markers.