Influence of provenance in seed and emergence characteristics of a gigantic

liana- Entada pursaetha DC.

Keywords:
Eastern Ghats, gigantic woody climber, legume, seedling vigour.
ABSTRACT:



A provenance trial of Entada pursaetha containing five provenances from
Eastern ghats were used for this study. Individual seed characteristics varied among
provenances and highest was recorded in Talakona and lowest in Kolli hills. Cent
percent emergence was recorded with high seedling vigour in the seeds of Talakona.
Inter-correlation studies revealed a strong positive correlation between emergence
and seed length, maximum seed width, and seed weight, while minimum seed width
showed weak correlation. Araku valley and Kolli hills exhibited close proximity, while
the genetic distance between Talakona and Rollapenta was the highest. There was no
influence of environment on the seed characters. Maximum and minimum seed width
exhibited higher values of heritability.
032-037 | JRPS | 2011 | Vol 1 | No 1
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Authors:
Sai Vishnu Priya K
1
,

Srinivasa Rao JV
1*
.



Institution:
1
Department of Botany, Sri
Venkateswara University,
Tirupati- 517 501, Andhra
Pradesh, India.
*
PNCKR College of PG
studies, Palnad Road,
Narasaraopet -522 601,
Andhra Pradesh, India.


Corresponding author:
Sai Vishnu Priya K


Email:
saivishnupriya@yahoo.com










Web Address:
http://plantsciences.info/
documents/PS0006.pdf.


Dates:
Received: 09 Nov 2011 /Accepted: 14 Nov 2011 /Published: 08 Dec 2011
Article Citation:
Sai Vishnu Priya K,

Srinivasa Rao JV

Influence of provenance in seed and emergence characteristics of a gigantic liana-
Entada pursaetha DC.
Journal of Research in Plant Sciences (2011) 1: 032-037
Original Research Paper
Journal of Research in Plant Sciences
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Journal of Research in
Plant Sciences
An International Scientific
Research Journal
An International Scientific Research Journal
INTRODUCTION
Entada pursaetha is a gigantic woody climber
among legumes, which produces long giant woody
pods (90-150 cm) with flat, orbicular horny seeds (5-
30 number/pod) characterized with hard coat. It is an
important tribal pulse, with a variety of medicinal
uses. Due to its wide array of chemical compounds
and the seeds are considered to have alexiteric,
narcotic, tonic, emetic, anthelmintic, antipyretic and
febrifuge properties (Das,

1994). Locally, it is known
as the soap plant as all of its parts are used in the soap
industry. Less natural seed germination due to hard
seed coat had thrown this species to endangered
level in Eastern ghats, India (Jadhav et al., 2001).
In the selection of the best available
geographic source of seeds or planting materials, the
genetic and epigenetic variations in seed
characteristics and germination behavior of a species
will be helpful

(Kertadikara & Part, 1995). Abideen et
al. (1993) reported that the proper growth of the
seedlings and subsequent survival in the field
depends mainly on the quality of seed and vigour of
seedlings. Provenance trial is one of the methods in
any tree improvement programmes (Wright, 1976).
Seed characteristics like seed dimensions and seed
weight play an important role when such trials are
laid out on International level. Proper selection
method of provenance for seeds will ensure better
vigour and easy establishment of seedlings. In the
present investigation five provenances belonging to
Eastern ghats, India were selected to study the
variability in their seed characteristics and
germination parameters using correlation, regression,
hierarchical cluster analysis and genetic parameter
analysis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Five E. pursaetha growing geographical
regions (Table 1) of Eastern ghats of India viz.,
Araku valley of the north-eastern ghats, Rollapenta of
the central region, Talakona and Tirumala hills in the
southern part of Andhra Pradesh, and the Kolli hills
of south eastern ghats in Tamil Nadu were selected
for this study. Three best individuals were identified
based on saponin content (Unpublished data) from
each provenance and fifty uniform seeds of each
individual were separated from fresh morphologically
mature pods. The collected seeds were spread out to
dry in the sun, and then stored in gunny bags at room
temperature (28 C - 31
0
C). Length, maximum and
minimum seed width of 150 seeds belonging to each
provenance were measured individually using high
precision vernier calipers along with their individual
seed weight. Seeds were pretreated with hot water
(100 C) for 10 min and washed thoroughly with
running tap water for 10 min and then subjected to
hardening process like wetting (hydration) in tap
water for 12 h followed by air drying (dehydration)
for subsequent 12 h till the membranes of the hard
coat became soft (Unpublished data).
Priya et al.,2011
033 Journal of Research in Plant Sciences (2011) 1: 032-037
Name of the
localities
Longitude Latitude
Altitude
(M)
Mean Temperature
Mean
Annual Rain fall
(mm)

Summer Winter
Max
(C)
Min
(C)
Max
(C)
Min
(C)
Araku Valley
(Visakhapatnam District,
Andhra Pradesh)
82520E 181960N 911 36 22 19 12 1,000 - 1,100
Rollapenta
(Kurnool District,
Andhra Pradesh)
78490E 155260N 644 45 26 21 12 900 - 1,000
Talakona
(Chittoor District,
Andhra Pradesh)
798E 1343N 667 43 25 31 16 800 - 1,000
Tirumala Hills
(Chittoor District,
Andhra Pradesh)
792060E 134060N 869 40 22 30 14 850 - 1,010
Kolli Hills
(Namakkal District,
Tamil Nadu)
7830E 1130N
1,000
1,300
30 20 20 10 950 - 1,043
Table 1 : Details of the locality factors of E. pursaetha provenances
After hardening process the treated and
untreated seeds were thoroughly washed with water
and were then sown in earthenware pots of 60x120
cm size, filled with potting mixture sand: soil (3:1) to
assess the emergence performance. The seeds were
dispersed from one another at 5 cm distance and at 1
cm depth. The pots were maintained in glass house
at 302
0
C and 75 % relative humidity and
monitored daily. Plumule protrusion to 2-3 mm
from the soil was scored as emergence. The
emergence performance was calculated on alternate
days, from the first day of emergence till no further
increase. The percentage of emergence was
calculated as described by ISTA (1985). Seedling
vigour, expressed in terms of total seedling length
was calculated with some modifications of Abdul
Baki & Anderson (1973) as

Seedling vigour = Mean emergence (%) x Mean
seedlings length (cm)

Three replicates were used for each
provenance; each replicate consisted of 150 seeds of
three individuals. For comparison of multiple means,
one-way ANOVA was made and the significant
means were separated by using the Tukeys test. All
statistical tests were conducted at P=0.01 using SPSS/
PC + version 9.0 statistical package.
Linear equations: Linear equation of the form
y=a+bx was used to express the dependence of
emergence percentage on the other seed
characteristics.
Hierarchical cluster analysis were conducted
using SPSS/PC + version 9.0 statistical package
among five provenances based on seed characteristics
and emergence performance.
The data were statistically analyzed and the
variation due to genotype and phenotype, genotypic
coefficient of variation (GCV), phenotypic coefficient
of variation (PCV) and heritability (H
2
) were worked
out (Singh & Chaudhary, 1985). Genetic advance
(GA) and genetic gain (GG) were determined by
Johnson et al. (1955).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Seed characteristics like length, maximum
and minimum seed width, and seed weight were the
highest in seeds collected from Talakona and lowest
in Kolli hills, moderate in Araku valley, Rollapenta,
and Tirumala (Table 2). Environmental influences
during the development of seeds combined with
genetic variability can result in variations in seed
dimensions (Willian, 1985). The highest seed
dimensions could be attributed to better differential
seed filling based on locality or site factors. Similar
results have been observed in teak by Dabral
(1976). Toon et al. (1990) have reported that bigger
seed size indicates better quality of seeds and
genetic potential.
The seeds collected from Talakona took
about 15 days for completion of emergence while,
seeds from Rollapenta took 19 days. Differences in
seed dimensions and emergence characteristics due
to variation in provenances have been observed by
earlier workers (Kumar, 1979; Bedell, 1989).
However, emergence percentage and seedling
vigour were highest in seeds of Talakona compared
to the remaining provenances (Table 3). The
present observations point to the fact that,
emergence percentage and seedling vigour are
governed by genetic factors of the provenances as
has been reported by several researches (Farmer,
1980; Jayasankar et al., 1999).
Coefficients of correlation between seed
characters and emergence percentage (Table 4)
showed maximum seed width as the best predictor
variable (r = 0.743) for emergence percentage
followed by seed length (r =0.699), seed weight (r =
0.670). Seed vigour also showed high positive
correlation with seed length (r = 0.980), emergence
percentage (r = 0.787) and seed weight (r = 0.724).
A multiple regression models for prediction
Priya et al.,2011
Journal of Research in Plant Sciences (2011) 1: 032-037 034
Provenance
Seed length
(cm)

Seed width
Maximum
(cm)
Seed width
Minimum
(cm)
Seed weight
(g)

Araku Valley 5.82 5.32 4.91
a
602.00
Rollapenta 5.77 5.21
a
5.11 595.00
Talakona 6.11 5.49 5.22 624.00
Tirumala Hills 5.62 5.24
a
5.02
a
591.50
a

Kolli Hills 5.30 4.74 4.27 591.00
a

Values are mean of three replicates; Mean values having the same letter in each column
do not differ at 5% level of significance (Tukey test)
Table 2: Variation in individual seed parameters of Entada pursaetha


of emergence, and seedling vigour from seed
dimensions were estimated, given below.
EP = 99.992 0.842 X SLN + 0.632 X SW1
0.543 X SW2 0.004 X SWT - 0.780 X
SeL 0.007 X SV (r
2
= 0.999)
SV = -12563.7 + 108.264 X SLN 76.930 X SW1
+ 69.558 X SW3 593.00 X SWT + 0.125
X EP + 98.605 X SeL (r
2
= 1.00)
Where; SLN= Seed length; SW1= Seed width
maximum; SW2= Seed width minimum; SWT=
Seed weight; EP= Emergence performance; SeL=
Seedling length; SV= Seedling vigour.
Studies in many species indicated that the
seed characters can be an indicative for the quality
of the seed by their strong correlation with
emergence (Toon et al., 1990). The same findings
were observed in the present results, which had
shown a strong correlation between seed
characteristics and emergence. Distance matrix
revealed that the close proximity existence between
the provenances Araku valley and Kolli hills (D =
91.55), while the genetic distance between
Talakona and Rollapenta was the largest (D =
3697.71) (Table 5). The proximity of
geographically different provenances of E.
pursaetha may be attributed to the fact that factors
other than geographic diversity might be
responsible for their genetic uniformity

(Kumar &
Toky, 1996).
Genotypic and phenotypic variations were
high in seed vigour, seed weight. The heritability
was highest for the maximum seed width followed
by minimum seed width (Table 6). Moderate
values were recorded for seed length, seed weight,
Priya et al.,2011
035 Journal of Research in Plant Sciences (2011) 1: 032-037
Table 4: Intercorrleation coefficience matrix of seed characteristics in five provinces
SLN SW1 SW2 SWT EP SeL SV
SLN 1
SW1 0.866** 1
SW2 0.857** 0.900** 1
SWT 0.633* 0.682** 0.501 1
EP 0.699** 0.743** 0.575* 0.670** 1
SeL 0.222 0.282 -0.011 0.673** 0.650** 1
SV 0.371 0.426 0.147 0.724** 0.787** 0.980** 1
**Correlation is siganificant at the 0.01 level; *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level
SLN= Seed length; SW1= Seed width maximum; SW2= Seed width minimum; SWT= Seed weight;
EP= Emergence performance; SeL= Seedling length; SV= Seedling vigour
Table 3: Emergence behavior of Entada pursaetha provinces
Provenance
Days taken to complete
emergence
Emergence
Percentage (%)
Seedling
Length
(cm)
Seedling
Vigour
Araku Valley 17.23
a
96.68 132.50 12819.17
Rollapenta 19.35 94.96 118.68 11272.53
Talakona 15.33 100.00 149.70 14970.00
Tirumala Hills 18.69 95.90 127.00 12189.13
Kolli Hills 17.12
a
93.96 135.47 12728.38
Values are mean of three replicates; Mean values having the same letter in each column do not differ
at 5% level of significance (Tukey test)
Araku valley Rollapenta Talakona Tirumala Kolli hills
Araku valley 0
Rollapenta 1546.72 0
Talakona 2151.00 3697.71 0
Tirumala 630.15 916.64 2781.15 0
Kolli hills 91.55 1455.95 2241.91 539.32 0
Table 5: Dissimilarity matrix between provenances
seedling length, seedling vigour. The low value for
heritability was recorded in case of emergence. The
differences between GCV and PCV for seed
characteristics were small (Table 6) indicating
negligible or no influence of environment in the
expression of the characters. According to Burton
(1952) the study of the GCV together with
heritability estimates would give the best picture of
progress to be expected from selection. Johnson et
al. (1955)

reported that heritability estimates are
reliable only when they are accompanied by a high
genetic gain.

CONCLUSION
In the present investigation, seeds collected
from Talakona provenance showed good emergence
performance compared to other provenances. The
seed characters and emergence were tightly
correlated. Close proximity was noticed in Araku
and Kolli hills. The observations of the genetic
parameters revealed that heritability was highest in
maximum seed width followed by minimum seed
width.

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Priya et al.,2011
Journal of Research in Plant Sciences (2011) 1: 032-037 036
Character GV PV GCV PCV H
2
GA GG
SLN 0.08 0.10 4.96 5.58 79.21 0.52 9.10
SW1 0.08 0.08 5.30 5.35 97.89 0.56 10.79
SW2 0.13 0.14 7.45 7.76 92.16 0.72 14.73
SWT 174.30 218.25 2.20 2.46 79.86 24.30 4.05
EP 4.18 7.56 2.12 2.86 55.21 3.13 3.25
SeL 116.76 160.66 8.14 9.55 72.67 18.98 14.30
SV 1664509.98 2236447.44 10.08 11.69 74.43 2292.84 17.92
Table 6: Variance components, heritability, genetic advance and genetic gain values based on germination
percentage and other seed characteristics
GV- Genetic variance; PV- Phenotypic variance; GCV-Genotypic coefficient of variation; PCV- Phenotypic
coefficient of variation; H
2
-Heritability; GA-Genetic advance; GG-Genetic gain


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Priya et al.,2011
037 Journal of Research in Plant Sciences (2011) 1: 032-037
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