Identification of Groundnut Germplasm Lines for Foliar Disease Resistance and High Oleic Traits using SNP and Gene-based Markers and Their Morphological Characterization

Abstract

Background: Resistance to foliar fungal diseases along with oleic acid trait, are important objectives of groundnut breeding. Among foliar fungal diseases, rust and late leaf spot (LLS) cause significant economic loss and high oleic trait is preferred in industry that enhances economic values of crop. Methods: Morphological characterization of the 186-groundnut germplasm lines/genotypes for ten yield attributing traits and their significance of correlation was analyzed using SPSS ver. 19 software at 1% and 5% probability level of significance. Screening for LLS and rust diseases was done employing 10X SNP assay at ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India. Selected superior groundnut germplasm line(s) were screened for presence of FAD2B allele responsible for high oleic acid traits using allele specific marker. Result: Significant and positive correlation was found between dry weight and hundred pod weight (r=0.0.801) and harvest index (r=0.0.830). Molecular characterization along with morphological characterization identified highly diversified lines of groundnut. This study reports 78 foliar fungal disease resistant groundnut germplasm lines. Selected 11 groundnut germplasm lines represented resistance against LLS and rust diseases along with FAD2B allele for oleic acid trait.