Testa colour inheritance in groundnut (Aracms hypogaea L.)

Inheritance of testa colour was studied in six cross of groundnut namely Tirupati - 1 (rose) x ICCV 86699 (red), JL-24 (rose) x ICCV 86699 (red), TCGS-37 (red) x ICCV 86699 (red), Tirupati - 1 (rose) x NcAc 343 (rose), JL-24 (rose) x NcAc 343 (rose) and TCCS-37 (red) x NcAc 343 (rose) and TCGS-37 (red) x NcAc 343 (rose). F₂ segregation gave an acceptable fit to a phenotypic ratio of 12 rose: 3 red: 1 light tan in fonner two crosses which shows epistatic interaction between two loci. In the cross, TCGS-37 (red) x ICGV 86699 (red), F₂ segregation fitted well to an expected phenotypic ratio of 51 red: 12 rose: 1 light fan. This indicates the involvement of two gene loci for red testa interacting with rose testa colour locus in epistatic fashion. F₂ segregation ratios in crosses Tirupati-1 (rose) x NcAc 343 (rose) and JL-24 (rose) x NcAc 343 (rose) fitted well to an expected phenotypic ratio of 60 rose: 3 red: 1 white indicating trigenic inheritance with two epistatic gene loci governing rose testa interacting with one red test acolour locus that is hypostatic to both the rose testa loci. The segregation pattern in cross TCGS-37 (red) x NcAc 343 (rose) showed tetragenic inheritance with duplicate loci for rose as well as red testa colours interacting in epistatic manner. This needs to be confinned further through F₃ studies.