Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Cowpea is very important in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of Africa where it serves as a source of protein for the local population coupled with its ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen. Induced mutation has been successful in many crop species but least applied in legumes like cowpea. Experiment was conducted on colchicine induced variations in cowpea by exposing the apical shoots of seedlings of two cowpea accessions (NG07 and NG08) to 0.2% colchicine in semi-solid agar. Semi-solid agar proved to be an effective medium of applying colchicine to apical shoots of cowpea seedlings. Traits like plant height, number of pods per plant and seeds per pod were reduced by colchicine treatment compared to control. Terminal leaflet length and number of nodes were enhanced by colchicine treatment compared to control and seed weight was significantly enhanced in both accessions compared to the control. There were contradictory responses to colchicine treatment between the two accessions for peduncle length, number of primary branches and pod length, indicating response to be genotype specific within a species. Colchicine caused noticeable differences in qualitative traits like twining tendency, plant pigmentation, testa texture and leaf colour for both accessions. The range of variations observed from this study indicates a better possibility of genetic breeding through this approach.
Institution: Adekunle Ajasin University
Language: English
Subfield: Plant Science
Domain: Life Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4298058873