Genotype Environment Interaction in Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativusL.) Lines

G B Polignano,V Bisignano,C Della Gatta,V Tomaselli,P Uggenti,V Alba

doi:10.1155/2009/898396

Abstract

Eight grass pea lines grown in three different seasons were evaluated for the stability of seed yield, 100 seeds weight, flowering time, plant height, and biomass. Significant differences existed among years, lines, and lines years interaction for all traits except for 100 seeds weight. Two methods of multivariate analysis cluster and principal components were utilized to determine: firstly, whether a pattern existed among lines in their response across years and secondly to examine the relationships among them. In both analyses, each line was presented as a vector whose elements were given by the performance of lines in each year. The analyses used arranged the lines into groups that were differentiable in terms of performances and stability. Our results provide useful information to aid the choice of grass pea lines in the Mediterranean marginal areas.

Highlights

IntroductionLathyrus sativus L. (grass pea, in italian “cicerchia”) has been a traditional crop both for animal consumption as forage and grain, and for human consumption as a food grain
Lathyrus sativus L. has been a traditional crop both for animal consumption as forage and grain, and for human consumption as a food grain
The utilization of grass pea grain is limited by the presence of a water soluble, nonprotein amino acid β-N-oxalyldiaminopropionic acid (β-ODAP) which acts as a neurotoxin crippling the lower limbs when consumed in large amounts during a prolonged period can cause the disease neurolathyrism (Sharma et al [5])

Summary

Introduction

Lathyrus sativus L. (grass pea, in italian “cicerchia”) has been a traditional crop both for animal consumption as forage and grain, and for human consumption as a food grain. The utilization of grass pea grain is limited by the presence of a water soluble, nonprotein amino acid β-N-oxalyldiaminopropionic acid (β-ODAP) which acts as a neurotoxin crippling the lower limbs when consumed in large amounts during a prolonged period can cause the disease neurolathyrism (up to 6% of the population) (Sharma et al [5]). This has lead to the crop being excluded from agricultural improvement efforts. Considerable genetic diversity, as revealed by phenological, morphological, agronomical, biochemicals, molecular, and quality polymorphism exists in grass pea throughout the world

Methods

Results

Conclusion