INHERITANCE OF PROTEIN CONTENT IN PEA. IVb. PERFORMANCE OF PLANTS GROWN FROM WHOLE SEEDS AND FROM HALF SEEDS

56 RESEARCH REPORTS

PNL Volume 13

1981

Swiecicki, W. K.,

Z. Kaczmarek, and M. Surma

Plant Experiment Station, Wiatrowo, Poland

Institute of Plant Genetics, Poznan, Poland

Our use of the half-seed technic in breeding research prompted us to ask

if and in what way the plants which grew from halves of seeds differ from

"normal" plants which grew from whole seeds. To answer this we set up an

experiment involving a randomized block design with 6 replications, 3 lines

of peas (Wt 3026, Wt 3527, Wt 4042), and two ways of plant propagation. Plant

growth rate was analyzed on the basis of the length of stem measured at 3

stages of development. Seed yield and % protein content were analyzed as well.

To compare the rate of growth of plants derived from half seeds (HS) with

that of plants grown from whole seeds (WS) plant height was measured when

the plants were at the 2-3 leaflet and 4-5 leaflet stage of development and

then at maturity. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed that,

except for the 2-3 leaflet stage, there was no interaction between ways of

propagation and lines.

In the majority of cases HS plants were in all stages slightly smaller than

WS plants; however, the differences were statistically significant (at the

0.05 level) at the two first stages of development but not at maturity. (Table 1),

Besides growth rate, components of yield and % protein content were

studied (Table 2). A very low protein content, caused by the excess of rainfall

in 1980, is noteworthy. In normal years protein content for Wt 3026 is about

29%, WT 3527 - 22%, and WT 4042 - 27%. The MANOVA showed no interaction between

ways of propagation with lines for all characters analyzed or for protein

content. Moreover, although the mean number of pods and mean seed yield in

HS plants were slightly lower than in WS plants, the differences were not

significant.

Altogether the present results plus the high germination rate (96%) for

the HS plants indicate that the HS method is a promising research tool.