Description

Abstract: Elevated oleic acid concentration increases the quality and shelf-life of peanut and their derived products. Incorporation of this character is an important objectives of most peanut breeding programs. The objectives of this study were to examine the General combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) effects for oleic acid concentration and identify promising crosses for developing high oleic peanut varieties. Twenty crosses in the F2 and F3 generations from a full diallel matting of five parental genotypes and their parents were evaluated under field conditions in a randomized complete block design with four replications for two seasons along with the original parental lines. Seed samples were analyzed for fatty acid compositions by gas liquid chromatography. The GCA effects were significant for oleic acid and O/L ratio in both F2 and F3 generations. The SCA and reciprocal effects were also significant, but their relative contributions to variation among crosses were much smaller than those of the GCA effects. The results suggested that additive gene action was important in the inheritance of oleic acid concentration, and selection for high-oleic acid should be effective. The crosses of the line [(NC17090