Theme 23: Biodiversity
Description
More than 850 accessions of vetch (Vicia sativa L.) representing 16 countries were obtained from the Italian Germplasm Institute and grown in a Southern Italy environment. The five following quantitative characters were analysed: days to harvest, plant dry weight, number of pods per plant, seed yield per plant, and seed yield per pod. The frequencies of various phenotypes were examined for total world collection and for each country in which there was a sufficient number of accessions. Wide phenotypic variability was observed for all characters, and usually within each country. The Shannon–Weaver diversity index (H') was used to examine overall phenotypic diversity on a world and geographic basis. The total world collection showed a high diversity (H'= 0.872) and also the collections of substantial size (Turkey, FAO and Italy) showed a highly significant diversity index (H'= 0.826, 0.762, 0.801). A strong positive correlation was found between biomass and seed yield for total accessions (r = 0,794**) and for the accessions of some countries; these results indicate that simultaneous selection for both traits should be successful.
Included in
Variation of Agronomic Traits in a World Collection of Vetch (Vicia sativa L.)
More than 850 accessions of vetch (Vicia sativa L.) representing 16 countries were obtained from the Italian Germplasm Institute and grown in a Southern Italy environment. The five following quantitative characters were analysed: days to harvest, plant dry weight, number of pods per plant, seed yield per plant, and seed yield per pod. The frequencies of various phenotypes were examined for total world collection and for each country in which there was a sufficient number of accessions. Wide phenotypic variability was observed for all characters, and usually within each country. The Shannon–Weaver diversity index (H') was used to examine overall phenotypic diversity on a world and geographic basis. The total world collection showed a high diversity (H'= 0.872) and also the collections of substantial size (Turkey, FAO and Italy) showed a highly significant diversity index (H'= 0.826, 0.762, 0.801). A strong positive correlation was found between biomass and seed yield for total accessions (r = 0,794**) and for the accessions of some countries; these results indicate that simultaneous selection for both traits should be successful.
