Seed dormancy in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.): II. Estimation of gene effects in six crosses

Gene effects for seed dormancy and days to first flowering were estimated i n six crosses (Somnath x TMV 10, Somnath x J-11, Chico x GG-11, Chico x JSP -23, JL-24 x GG-11, and JL-24 x J-11) between ssp. hypogaea and fastigiata of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) using generation mean analysis. Scaling tests and chi(2) values were significant for both characters in all the cro sses (except JL-24 x J-11 for seed dormancy) indicating the presence of non -allelic gene interactions. Additive effects, dominance effects, and duplic ate epistatic interaction effects were found to be significant in two cross es. For all other crosses, additive gene effects were predominant for seed dormancy and, hence, a simple pedigree selection scheme can be followed to improve this character in these crosses. Similarly for days to first flower ing, additive gene effects were predominant in four crosses indicating that earliness can be fixed through pedigree selection, while in two crosses do minance x dominance gene effects were significant with higher magnitude, in dicating that early generation selection may lead to ambiguity in these two crosses.