Combining Ability and Heritability of Resistance to Early and Late Leafspot of Peanut1

Abstract

Abstract Four parental lines with resistance to early leafspot caused by Cercospora arachidicola Hori and four parental lines with resistance to late leafspot caused by Cercosporidium personatum (Berk. & Curt.) Deighton and the F1 hybrid progeny from crosses between the two groups of parents were evaluated for resistance to both leafspot diseases in the greenhouse using a detached leaf technique. The subsequent F2 plants of all crosses were evaluated in the field for resistance to early leafspot in order to estimate combining ability effects for components of partial resistance and to identify parents useful in developing lines resistant to both diseases. General combining ability, attributed largely to additive genetic variance, accounted for the largest portion of the variability among the F1 and F2 generations for most parameters of resistance to both early and late leafspots. Reciprocal effects and heterosis toward the susceptible parents were also significant for parameters of resistance to the two pathogens. GP-NC 343 and FESR 5-P2-B1 were the best parents for incorporating genes for resistance to both early and late leafspots. Progenies of NC 17090 had a high level of resistance to late leafspot in detached leaf tests and progeny of PI 350680 had reduced defoliation from early leafspot in the field. Broad-sense heritabilities ranged from 0.2 to 0.4 for parameters of resistance to early leafspot estimated from the pooled variances of F2 plants of all crosses planted in the field. Parameters of resistance evaluated in the greenhouse for F1 hybrids were compared to parameters evaluated in the field for the F2 population by rank correlation of entry means. Latent period and sporulation of the fungus on detached leaves of F1 generation plants correlated (r = −0.46 and 0.54, respectively) with defoliation of F2 plants in the field.