In groundnut, water-use efficiency is governed by the photosynthetic capacity which is dependent on leaf nitrogen status. Leaf nitrogen status is ultimately reflected in the chlorophyll content. Chlorophyll content of different genotypes/individual plants in segregating generations in a relative manner can be obtained through SPAD chlorophyll meter reading (SCMR). The experimental material consisted of 300–350 F2 plants in each of five crosses involving a common male parent. Individual plants were screened for SCMR in F2 populations of each cross and the data were grouped taking a class interval of two. From the perusal of F2 frequency distributions of five groundnut crosses and the results of skewness and kurtosis, it could be inferred that leaf chlorophyll content in groundnut may be a quasi-quantitative trait with modifiers acting either to increase or decrease the expression of the trait in different genetic backgrounds as in the present study.
Groundnut, leaf chlorophyll content, inheritance, SPAD chlorophyll meter reading
