A genetic study of the hybrid progenies between common (Pisum sativum L.) and red-yellow (Pisum fulvum Sm.) peas

Abstract

Red-yellow or tawny pea (Pisum fulvum Sm.) has become an object of increasing interest for breeders in the last decade, since it has been proven to be a source of a partial or complete tolerance to various biotic stresses, such as the attack of pea weevil (Bruchus pisorum L.). Crossings were made between red-yellow pea and four distinct agronomic types of common pea, namely with fasciated stem, determinate stem growth, afila leaf type and strongly developed funiculus. Each of these four traits was chosen because of its supposed positive impact on grain yield. A genetic analysis included monitoring of the main grain yield components, such as main stem length, number of fertile nodes, number of pods, number of grains and thousand grains mass, as well as the inheritance of those four morphological traits and the degree of the pea weevil attack in F1 and F2 hybrid generations. The results have shown that all grain yield components are controlled by numerous genes, since the average values in both hybrid generations were between those of the parents, as well as that the morphological traits are inherited as in common pea. They also confirmed that there were probably three independent genes controlling pea weevil resistance.