PNL Volume 12
1980
RESEARCH REPORTS
67
INHERITANCE OF PROTEIN CONTENT IN PEA
I. INHERITANCE OF PROTEIN CONTENT ON THE BASIS OF DIALLELIC CROSSES
Swiecicki, W.K.
and M. Surma
Z. Kaczmarek,
Plant Experiment Station, Wiatrowo, Poland
Institute of Plant Genetics, Poznan, Poland
Polish agriculture is faced with a demand for developing high protein
pea varieties to serve as dry fodder components. Therefore, studies have
been undertaken to find out the mechanism of inheritance of protein content
in some selected pea varieties.
This part of the study was designed to determine estimates of general
and specific combining ability and of major genetic Parameters for a selected
set of pea lines. Two high yielding varieties ('Stral' and 'Flavanda')
and two lines from Wiatrowo (WTD 4011 and WTD 4015) were used for crossing
and diallel analyses. The latter contain approximately 30% crude protein
and are prospective for genetic and breeding experiments. The aforementioned
varieties and lines were crossed in a 4x4 daillel arrangement. A field experi-
ment was set up comprising the 4 parents and 12 hybrids in five randomized
complete blocks. Statistical analysis was made according to Hayman (1954),
Griffing (1956), and Dobek et al. (1977, 1978).
Table 1 presents the mean protein content in seeds of the parents and
F2. Statistical analysis indicated significant differences for the general
and specific combining ability. The effects of reciprocal crossing were
insignificant. The diallel analysis indicated adequacy of the additive-
dominance model of gene action for the analyzed set of genotypes. It allowed
for an appraisal of Mather's genetic parameters. They are relatively equal:
D=14.85+0.74; F=6.0411.91; H1=5.20±2.15; H2=4.47±1.99; h2=7.00±1.35.
The values of these parameters indicate the significance of the effects
of additive gene action and dominance effects, but there was dominance in
all crosses towards lower protein content.
The degree of dominance equals 0.59. Calculated broad and narrow sense
heritability coefficients were 92.7% and 75.1%, respectively.