Variability of Total Oil Content in Peanut Across the State of Texas

The state of Texas has three major regions with a history of peanut production: South Texas, Central Texas, and West Texas. The Texas A&M AgriLife peanut breeding program conducts replicated advanced yield trials at multiple locations within each of these regions annually. This study was initiated using entries from these same advanced line tests to determine if there were inter-regional and/or intra-regional differences in total oil content. The study was comprised of five cultivars used as checks in our yield tests and five advanced breeding lines. Three replications of each entry were tested for two South Texas, two West Texas, and two Central Texas locations. All of the samples were tested using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), which is a non-destructive test to determine the total oil content. A significant genotype by environment interaction was observed in both years of the study. Significant genotype differences were observed in all locations except the Stephenville location, which was inoculated with Sclerotinia minor in 2008. Maturity was significantly correlated with oil content across all locations for 2009 data.