Inheritance of Peanut Testa Colors Involved in Market Acceptability

Abstract

The only acceptable testa colors in the U.S. peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) market are tan, pink, and red. A better understanding of peanut testa color genetics would be helpful to breeders in developing new cultivars to meethese marketing parameters for human consumption. The objective of this study was to gain further knowledge on the inheritance of these very important testa colors. Six single crosses using three tan testa germplasm accessions (PI 203395, PI 203396, and PI 203397) as female parents and two new peanut cultivars (Georgia Runner and Georgia Browne) as male parents were made in 1989. Seed harvested from F1, F2, and F3 generations were classified during 1990, 1991, and 1992, respectively, for testa color, and data were analyzed for goodness‐of‐fit to expected genetic ratios. Testa color segregation fit a 15 tan + pink:l red F2 ratio, which confirmed a duplicate recessive loci model for red testa color. Genotypes, R2R2r3r3 and r2r2R3R3, are proposed for the three germplasm and the two Georgia parental peanut lines, respectively.