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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Griffin, Georgia » Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #390689
Research Project: Conservation, Characterization, Evaluation, and Distribution of Grain, Oilseed, Vegetable, Subtropical and Tropical Legume, and Warm Season Grass Genetic Resources and Associated Information

Location: Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit

Title: Evaluation of variability in seed coat color, weight, oil content, and fatty acid composition within the entire USDA-cultivated peanut germplasm collection

Author
item Wang, Ming
item Tonnis, Brandon
item CHEN, CHARLES - Auburn University
item Li, Xianran
item Pinnow, David
item Tallury, Shyamalrau - Shyam
item Stigura, Nicholas
item Pederson, Gary
item Harrison, Melanie

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2022
Publication Date: 10/12/2022
Citation: Wang, M.L., Tonnis, B.D., Chen, C., Li, X., Pinnow, D.L., Tallury, S.P., Stigura, N.E., Pederson, G.A., Harrison, M.L. 2022. Evaluation of variability in seed coat color, weight, oil content, and fatty acid composition within the entire USDA-cultivated peanut germplasm collection. Crop Science. 62:2332-2346. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20830.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20830

Interpretive Summary: One main goal of plant gene banks to characterize the collections they maintain. Diversity within a collection can provide the raw material for crop improvement. We measured important seed traits for most of the USDA peanut collection to explore this natural variation. These included seed color, size, and oil content and quality. We also used seed coat color as a simple indicator of seed mixtures. We found wide ranges from the minimum to maximum for each of these traits. We also found differences between peanut subspecies and varieties. This means that the collection has a lot of potential for use to improve peanut crop quality. We also found several positive correlations between the traits. This means that changing one trait may change other traits at the same time. The data collected here will be an important resource for plant breeders and researchers.

Technical Abstract: Natural genetic diversity in plant germplasm collections provides the genetic variability for crop improvement. To explore this natural genetic variability, over 8800 accessions within the USDA cultivated peanut germplasm collection were evaluated for several seed quality traits including seed coat color, 100-seed weight, oil content, and fatty acid composition. Significant variation in seed coat color was observed and recorded. Additionally, seed coat color was used as a simple indicator to remove some of the clearly contaminated/mixed accessions and 8466 accessions were used for further data analysis. The mean of 100-seed weight was 49.44 g with a wide range of 21.84 – 148.36 g (6.8-fold difference). The mean of oil content was 48.94% with a range of 36.51 – 59.45% (1.6-fold difference). The mean of oleic acid was 45.2% with a wide range of 39.99 – 82.08% (2.1-fold difference). The mean of linoleic acid was 32.56% with a wide range of 2.0 – 46.68% (23.3-fold difference). Significant variation in these traits was also identified between subspecies and among botanical varieties. Among the four quantitative traits, 100-seed weight was significantly and positively correlated with oil content (r = 0.17, p <0.0001) and oleic acid (r = 0.40, p <0.0001). Similarly, oil content was significantly and positively correlated with oleic acid (r = 0.28, p <0.0001). Linoleic acid was significantly and negatively correlated with three other traits. The results presented here will be useful for peanut breeders, geneticists, and other users.