Inheritance of Seed Longevity and Its Association with Other Seed-Related Traits in Soybean (Glycine max)

Soybean seeds are highly susceptible to field weathering and mechanical damage during storage, thereby adversely affecting their longevity. To study the inheritance of seed longevity crossing was undertaken between two well-adopted genotypes (DS-228 and MAUS-71) having low seed longevity and two genotypes (Birsa Soya-1 and Kalitur) having high seed longevity and their total of 1138 F2 segregants were subjected to accelerated ageing test. F2 population data for seed longevity trait fitted in 3:1 Mendelian ratio indicated that it was governed by a single major gene in all the four crosses was further confirmed by test cross which fits the ratio 1:1. The segregants obtained from this study could be utilized for the development of high seed longevity soybean breeding program. The results of various six generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, B1 and B2) of four crosses exhibited varietal differences in seed vigour as clearly evident by standard germination after 8 days of accelerated ageing (ranged from 53.16 to 83.09%). Seed longevity had a positive association with germination percentage, seed density, proportion of the seed coat and lignin content in all four crosses, while seed coat permeability had negative association. The black-seeded parents were found to inherit good storability trait to their yellow-seeded progenies. © 2018, NAAS (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences).