Agro-morphological Diversity of Six Peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) Breeding Lines from Three Geographical Areas

Aims: To improve peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) performance, morphological traits of agronomic importance were assessed for genetic diversity of six breeding lines. These lines are from different geographical origins Burkina Faso, Senegal and the USA.

Study Design: The experimental was performed as a Fisher randomized complete block with three replications.

Place and Duration of Study: The morphological experiment was conducted at the research station of Rural Development Institute (IDR) at Gampêla in the East-Central area of ​​Burkina Faso during the cropping season of 2015-2016.

Methodology: Twenty character traits (qualitative and quantitative morphological parameters and resistance components) described in the peanut descriptor were used for characterization.

Results: Analysis of variance revealed a wide variability between these six lines for different traits of characters used. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) indicate that this variability is structured into three groups. Group I includes early breeding lines, productive and susceptible to leaf spot (early and late) SH470P, CN94C and (AS) the second group includes a single line resistant and late GM656; and the third group include resistant and latest maturing breeding lines, NAMA and PC79-79.

Conclusion: GM656 and CN94C could be potential parents in the breeding program to combine resistance with early and high yield potential.

Molecular characterization of these breeding lines will better distinguish these and understand the genetic control of different traits; this will allow an improvement of this important crop for performance and leaf spot resistance.