Cross-compatibility and F1 Reproductive Potential of Cultivated Cowpea Varieties and a Wild Relative (Subsp. unguiculata var. spontenea)

D J Nwosu,S Aladele,J O Adeosun,C Nwadike,E N Awa

doi:10.15580/gjas.2013.3.031913534

Abstract

A hybridization programme that potentially exploits the variability existing in the wild African germplasm of V. unguiculata and cultivated cowpea was performed. Four cultivated cowpea (Achi shuru, Ife Brown, Kanannado and Zebra bean) were crossed to their wild relative subsp. unguiculata var. spontanea to ascertain their cross compatibility, reproductive potential and possible heterosis in the F 1 generations. Results show that the cultivated varieties hybridized relatively well with their wild relative with pod set of 40.8% to 46.7%. F 1 hybrid plants also showed high heterosis in plant height and number of leaves and produced viable seeds. These results are indications of a good reproductive potential of the hybrids suggesting that the wild relative could be used in hybridization programmes for improvement of cultivated populations.

Highlights

The F1 crosses had higher percentage pod set when compared to the wild Vigna and cultivated parents (Table 2)
Result of mean percentage pod set resulting from hand crossing (46.32%) (Table 1) compares fairly well with mean percentage pod set of 49.9% achieved by natural selfing among the parent genotypes (Table 2)
The F1 crosses mean percentage pod set of 73.1% is higher than that of the parents (Table 2), and shows high heterosis for pod set in the crosses and cross-compatibility between the cultivated cowpea and their wild relative var. spontanea

Summary

Introduction

Cowpea is called vegetable meat due to high amount of protein in grain with better biological value on dry weight basis. Cowpea grain contains 23.4 per cent Protein, 1.8 per cent Fat and 60.3 per cent Carbohydrates and it is a rich source of Calcium and Iron (Gupta, 1988). Cowpea plays a critical role in the lives of millions of people in Africa and other parts of the developing world, where it is a major source of dietary protein that nutritionally complements staple low-protein cereal and tuber crops, and is a valuable and dependable commodity that produces income for farmers and traders (Singh, 2002; Langyintuo et al, 2003). Cowpea is a valuable component of farming systems in many areas because of its ability to restore soil fertility for succeeding cereal crops grown in rotation with it (Carsky, et al, 2002; Tarawali, et al, 2002; Sanginga et al, 2003)

Methods

Results

Conclusion