Peanut Core Collection Established in China and Compared with ICRISAT Mini Core Collection

Abstract

The core collection has been well accepted as a useful way to improve the efficiency of crop germplasm evaluation, conservation and utilization. Around 6 390 accessions of cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) have been collected in China. In order to characterize and utilize the germplasm more efficiently for further crop improvement, the available morphological and biochemical data were analyzed to develop a core collection. The entire collection was first stratified by botanical types and then grouped by origin locations. Based on the data of 15 morphological and biochemical characters, the accessions in each botanical type were clustered by SAS method. From each cluster, five to ten percent of the accessions were randomly selected to form a core collection consisting of 576 accessions, which was 9.01% of the entire collection. The genetic variation in the entire collec- tion was well presented in the core collection based on comparison of diversity index of the involved traits in both entire and core collections. Comparison between the newly selected Chinese peanut core collection and the introduced mini core collection con- sisting of 184 lines established at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) indicated that there were wider diversities in the var. hirsuta and vulgaris as well as in leaf length, leaf width, seed length, seed width in the Chinese core collection. The ICRISAT peanut collection had wider diversities in var. hypogaea and fastigiata as well as in plant height and number of total branches than Chinese peanut resource.