Abstract

ZARATE ARIAS, María Dolores; OVIEDO DE CRISTALDO, Rosa María; AYALA BENITEZ, Marcela Beatriz  and  GONZALEZ ESPINOLA, Diego Dionisio. Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) seeds coat color variability observed in a seed lot coming from a producer farm. Investig. Agrar. [online]. 2012, vol.14, n.1, pp.31-39. ISSN 2305-0683.

The experiment was carried out at the experimental field of the Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias of the Universidad Nacional de Asunción. The objective was to determine the origin of seed coat color variability of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.), variety San Francisco. Lines were selected based on the difference observed for the background color, eye pattern and eye color of the seed. For the first, six colors were found, while for the last two, three groups of eye patterns and colors were observed. Each color or pattern represented a treatment. For each one, twenty plants or replications were seeded. As a control was used the original seed lot of mixed colors and patterns. The evaluation of offspring of both, the original batch and sub-batch was performed with the chi squared test. Significant differences between observed and expected proportions for the background color were observed for the original seed lot, the different classes and their descendants. Significant differences in eye color were also observed among the progeny of the original batch and the sub-batch with brown eye color. On the other hand, no statistically significant differences were found between the original seed lot and its progeny for the eye pattern. It was concluded that the variability in the coat color of cowpea seed is due to a mixture of pure lines and segregates in determining the background color and eye color of the seed. However, it is a mixture of pure lines for eye pattern.

Keywords : Vigna unguiculata,; cowpea,; seed coat,; variability.

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