Selection of cowpea progenies with enhanced drought-tolerance traits using principal component analysis.

Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp (cowpea) is a food crop with high nutritional value that is cultivated throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The main constraint on high productivity of cowpea is water deficit, caused by the long periods of drought that occur in these regions. The aim of the present study was to select elite cowpea genotypes with enhanced drought tolerance, by applying principal component analysis to 219 first-cycle progenies obtained in a recurrent selection program. The experimental design comprised a simple 15 x 15 lattice with 450 plots, each of two rows of 10 plants. Plants were grown under water-deficit conditions by applying a water depth of 205 mm representing one-half of that required by cowpea. Variables assessed were flowering, maturation, pod length, number and mass of beans/pod, mass of 100 beans, and productivity/plot. Ten elite cowpea genotypes were selected, in which principal components 1 and 2 encompassed variables related to yield (pod length, beans/pod, and productivity/plot) and life precocity (flowering and maturation), respectively.

Estimates of genetic parameters using RELM/BLUP for intrapopulational genetic breeding of Platonia insignis Mart.

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters to support the selection of bacuri progenies for a first cycle of recurrent selection, using the REML/BLUP (restricted maximum likelihood/best linear unbiased prediction) procedure to estimate the variance components and genotypic values. Were evaluated twelve variables in a total of 210 fruits from 39 different seed trees, from a field trial with an experimental design of incomplete blocks with clonal replies among subplots. The three variables related with the fruit development (weight, diameter, length) showed strong correlation, and where fruit length showed higher heritability and potential to be used for indirect selection. Among the 39 progenies evaluated in this study, five present potential to compose the next cycle of recurrent selection, due they hold good selection differential either to agrotechnological variables as to development of bacuri fruit.