Influences of genotype and location interactions on oil, fatty acids and agronomical properties of groundnuts

An enhanced adaptation to specific environmental conditions could provide higher seed quality and quantity from groundnuts. In this investigation, nine groundnut genotypes and two controls were evaluated for morphological and oil traits in two different Mediterranean locations. The traits of shelling percentage and pod yield indicated significant differences among the genotypes. The highest pod yield was observed for ACG 154 from the subsp. hypogaea var. hypogaea and ACG 107 from the subsp. fastigiata var. vulgaris in the locations of Adana and Antalya, respectively. The genotype ACG 154 also had about 60 g of 100-seed weight, which is desirable for commercial production as a Runner commercial type. Significant differences were recorded for oil yield, palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids in both locations among the genotypes studied. The groundnut genotypes were further evaluated with allele-specific PCR markers for possible SNP mutations in the ahFAD2A and ahFAD2B genes for high-oleic mutants. ACG 14, ACG 154 and ACG 156 had the mutant ahFAD2A allele, while no ahFAD2B allele mutation was found. The statistical model GGE bi-plot was used to identify the ideal and representative location for each genotype according to pod yield performance. The genotypes ACG 107 and ACG 116 presented the highest oil yield and were relatively stable across locations. Therefore, they should be evaluated as candidates for cultivar releases in the two studied climatic areas. In addition, the selected desirable genotypes in this study can be used as parents in hybridization programs to develop populations for future releases.