Some areas where tissue culture can help to widen the breeding base in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Abstract

Modern concepts on improving productivity in groundnut lay emphasis on breeding genetically broad based populations particularly to provide some risk cover against pests and diseases. Breeding methods involve making single and multiple crosses and evaluating F₂ populations of adequate sizes. Selection in early segregating generation is optimally based on an index involving key physiological, biological nitrogen fixation and yield components. Destructive sampling at earlier stages required for measuring some of those characters makes it difficult to relate them with the yield of plants on which they were measured. Field estimation of nitrogenase activity, an important character indicative of nitrogen fixation, is found to be efficient if it is done on a group of few plants of each genotype; this requirement poses its problems in F₂ generation. This paper highlights the utility of tissue culture in increasing population sizes for tackling some of these problems.