Inheritance of Sterile Brachytic and Sterile Dwarf Plants in Peanut

ABSTRACT Infraspecific cross combinations between the two subspecies of peanut (Arachis hypogaea L. ssp. hypogaea and ssp. fastigiata) result in sterile brachytic plants. These sterile brachytic plants have short stem internodes with clustering of the four leaflets without apparent rachis, shortened petiole, and absent of flowers. In the present study, phenotypically similar sterile dwarf plants were also found but with apparently fertile pollen, female sterile flowers, and visible rachis and petiolate leaflets, within subspecies hypogaea cross combination. Inheritance data suggested two or four recessive genes controlling the sterile brachytic plants found in F2 populations between the two subspecies hypogaea x fastigiata crosses. However, only one recessive gene (sdw) was proposed for the similar sterile dwarf plants found in different F2 populations within ssp. hypogaea x hypogaea crosses.