Inheritance of a shriveled seed trait in peanut

A seed shriveling trait in peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) has been identified that severely affects seed morphology and lipid deposition, This characteristic also showed partial penetrance and variable expressivity within the true-breeding shriveled lines. Also, both normal and shriveled seed were produced from the plants grown from either normal or shriveled seed from these lines, Knowledge of the genetic basis for this trait is important for understanding the biosynthetic lesion involved and for manipulation of the trait in breeding programs. Three shriveled-seeded lines-529B, 563A, 647A-were crossed to the normal-seeded cultivar. Sunrunner, and intercrossed to determine the inheritance of the shriveled seed trait and possible allelic relationships, Crosses with shriveled seed genotypes as male parents with Sunrunner showed that this trait is under the control of a single recessive gene, However, no segregation of shriveled types was observed in the F-2 generation of the reciprocal crosses when shriveled lines were used as female parents, Segregation was observed in the F-3 generation (F-4 seed) for these crosses, The paternal expression may be due to male transmission of extrachromosomal factors like plastids or mitochondria, or may be caused by a phenomenon like genomic imprinting, Only shriveled F-1 and F-2 seed were obtained from the crosses among the three shriveled lines, indicating only one locus was involved in the expression of this trait in these three genotypes.