Pod Dehiscence in Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa Roth).

Lisa Kissing Kucek,Sarah Krogman,Nancy Ehlke,Nick P Wiering,Sandra Wayman,Allen N Burke,Sarah Seehaver Eagen,Bryce P Rufener,Steven B Mirsky,Chris Reberg-Horton,Heathcliffe Riday,Matthew R Ryan

doi:10.3389/fpls.2020.00082

Abstract

Hairy vetch, Vicia villosa (Roth), is a cover crop that does not exhibit a typical domestication syndrome. Pod dehiscence reduces seed yield and creates weed problems for subsequent crops. Breeding efforts aim to reduce pod dehiscence in hairy vetch. To characterize pod dehiscence in the species, we quantified visual dehiscence and force required to cause dehiscence among 606 genotypes grown among seven environments of the United States. To identify potential secondary selection traits, we correlated pod dehiscence with various morphological pod characteristics and field measurements. Genotypes of hairy vetch exhibited wide variation in pod dehiscence, from completely indehiscent to completely dehiscent ratings. Mean force to dehiscence also varied widely, from 0.279 to 8.97 N among genotypes. No morphological traits were consistently correlated with pod dehiscence among environments where plants were grown. Results indicated that visual ratings of dehiscence would efficiently screen against genotypes with high pod dehiscence early in the breeding process. Force to dehiscence may be necessary to identify the indehiscent genotypes during advanced stages of selection.

Highlights

Hairy vetch, Vicia villosa (Roth), is an outcrossing diploid legume (2n = 14; Chooi, 1971; Yeater et al, 2004)
The germplasm for our genetic analysis of pod dehiscence (PD) originated from an existing hairy vetch breeding program
Our results indicated the potential to select for indehiscence in hairy vetch

Summary

Introduction

Vicia villosa (Roth), is an outcrossing diploid legume (2n = 14; Chooi, 1971; Yeater et al, 2004). Used as a green manure cover crop (SARE et al, 2015; CTIC et al, 2016; USDA-NASS, 2019), the species excels in winter hardiness (Brandsæter et al, 2002) and nitrogen supply to subsequent cash crops (Parr et al, 2000). With prevalent pod dehiscence (PD) and seed dormancy, hairy vetch does not exhibit a typical domestication syndrome (Meyer and Purugganan, 2013; Abbo et al, 2014). PD raises seed costs and causes weediness in fields, reducing utilization of this cover crop. Breeding efforts are underway to reduce or eliminate PD in hairy vetch. The goal of such efforts is to increase cover crop use and improve soil and water conservation

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion