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Title: COMBINING ABILITY ANALYSIS FOR SELECTED GREEN POD YIELD COMPONENTS OF VEGETABLE SOYBEAN GENOTYPES

Author
item MEBRAHTU, TADESSE - VIRGINIA STATE UNIVERSITY
item Devine, Thomas

Submitted to: New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/22/2008
Publication Date: 5/30/2008
Citation: Mebrahtu, T., Devine, T.E. 2008. Combining ability analysis for selected green pod yield components of vegetable soybean genotypes. New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science. 36:97-105.

Interpretive Summary: Edamame is a Japanese word for “Vegetable green soybean”. Edamame is a traditional food of Japan and China that is consumed throughout East Asia. Edamame is a large-seeded specialty crop harvested when the pods are fully filled and are still green. In Asia, where edamame is an important vegetable, farmers harvest fresh green pods along with stems when the pods are fully filled and just before they turn yellow. The fresh or frozen vegetable soybean can be cooked just like sweet pea or lima bean, either stir fried or added to stews and soups. Edamame has nearly 50% more protein than peas making them particularly appealing to the health conscious people seeking low fat, high protein snacks. In the United States, frozen vegetable soybean products are imported and are becoming popular as mainstream frozen fresh vegetables. Desirable vegetable soybean should have very large seed size, high sugar content, and smooth texture. The size and dimensions of the seed pod is important in determining seed size. This study describes the inheritance of pod dimensions and helps edamame soybean breeders select better parent lines for breeding edamame for US production and helps breeders select more efficient breeding procedures for edamame improvement.

Technical Abstract: Few studies have evaluated vegetable soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) for green pod yield components. Information on combining ability and the type of gene action that governs the inheritance of economically important quantitative characters can help breeders select suitable parents and devise appropriate breeding strategies. Ten vegetable soybean accessions were crossed in a complete diallel mating design. This study showed that estimates of both the combining ability (general and specific), and reciprocal variances were significant for plant height, hundred pod weigh, and pod dimensions (pod length, pod width, and pod thickness). The performances of the parents for the green pod yield components studied were highly associated with their general combining ability effects. Four parents, Kanrich, Pella, V81-1603, and PI 399055, were good general combiners for hundred pod weight and thus could be utilized in breeding programs to develop genotypes with large pod size.