Characterization of Zambian Pigeonpea(Cajanus cajan (L.)Millsp)germplasm using Morphological Characters
Date
2011-03-31
Authors
Syamuyoba, Phillip
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp) is of great importance in Zambia for its diversified
use, which can lead to increased farm income and subsequently food security at household
level. Its seeds have a protein content of approximately 21% and therefore is a cheap source
of protein in the human diet. The National Genebank, which has a responsibility for
collecting and conserving all locally available crop germplasm, has a collection of accessions
of pigeonpea that have not been characterized. Lack of characterization to obtain genetic
information about these accessions has caused the germplasm not to be widely utilized by
end-users such as plant breeders in the breeding programs and the magnitude of genetic
variation has so far not been assessed. The objective of this study was to assess genetic
variation among accessions of pigeonpea conserved at the National Genebank and to
determine characters that are useful in classifying pigeonpea.
Twenty-eight accessions were assessed for genetic variation based on morphological
characters at Mount Makulu Central Research Station, Chilanga, Zambia during the
2000/2001 growing season. The design of the experiment was a single block and each
accession was planted on a single unreplicated plot. Twenty-three characters (plant height,
number of branches, leaf size, days to 50% flowering, days to 80% maturity, number of
racemes, seeds per pod, 100-seed weight, growth habit, stem colour, stem thickness, leaf
hairiness, leaflet shape, flower colour, second flower colour, pattern of streaks, flowering
pattern, pod colour, pod hairiness, pod form, seed colour pattern, seed colour and seed shape)
were measured following IBPGR/ICRISAT (1993) pigeonpea descriptor list and analysed
using cluster analysis and principal component analysis. Cluster analysis grouped the
accessions into four major clusters based on commonly shared characters. Three principal
components were found to explain 73.9% of the total morphological variation. Days to 50%
flowering, days to 80% maturity, number of branches, number of racemes, plant height,
number of seeds per pod, stem colour, flower colour, pod colour, colour of the seed coat and
flowering pattern were the major sources of variation among the accessions. Based on these
results, it is concluded that there is genetic variation among the accessions of pigeonpea
conserved at the National Genebank. It is further concluded that characters that were the
major sources of variation are useful in classifying pigeonpea germplasm. These results could
be useful in pigeonpea improvement programs.
Description
Keywords
Pigeonpea , Morphology , Germplasm Resources