GENETIC-ANALYSIS OF POD QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS IN VEGETABLE COWPEA (VIGNA-UNGUICULATA L. WALP.)

A preliminary study of consumer preferences for pod characteristics in Vegetable cowpea showed a general preference for greener, longer, fle shier pods that are less seedy. Methods of quantitatively assessing th ese traits were developed and used in understanding the inheritance of pod quality traits. Combining ability analysis, involving a 6 x 6 dia llel mating design, showed that GCA effects were predominant for all p od characteristics. The additive effects were especially high for pad seediness. The dominance effect was, nevertheless, significant for all the characters. The dominance effects were unidirectional in the case of pod wall thickness and were in the direction of the thin walled pa rent. Dominance was ambidirectional for the other characteristics inve stigated. The study showed that it is relatively easy to improve these characters by carefully selecting the parents in hybridisation progra mmes. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.