Combining ability for main quality traits in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.)

Abstract: With extended shelf life, prolonged seed longevity and several health benefits, high-oleic peanut has been recognized by processing sectors, seed sellers and consumers. High oleate is becoming a must-have of present-day varietal releases in many peanut breeding programs. To select desirable parents for high-oleic peanut breeding, the study was to evaluate the combining ability of 5 high-oleic donors from our research team, based on quality of individual single seeds. General combining ability was significant for oleic, linoleic, stearic and palmitic acid, oil and protein, while specific combining ability was significant for the traits except oil. Among them, oil content was found to be conditioned solely by additive gene actions, and for other quality traits, additive gene effects were more important than non-additive gene effects. High-oleic CTW and normal-oleic Xiaojingsheng were selected as the best general combiners for peanut oleic acid improvement. Narrow-sense heritability was high for quality traits other than protein, suggesting that there was high potential for genetic improvement in these traits.