Absolute Zero pea - GRIN accession W6 15097

[Silverleaf]

I thought I'd start adding in details of some of the germplasm I obtained earlier this year, listing the genes I'm interested in from each one and my plans for breeding. Also, pretty flower pictures!

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs...lay.pl?1070145

Absolute Zero was the second pea in my "breeding area" to flower, just after Sugar Ann, so definitely early. It's a compact little plant, very short - the webpage claims 69cm, but my plants (admittedly in rather dry conditions in large pots) didn't get anywhere near that. It has at least one dwarf gene.

Flowers are a strange muted muddy purple, with young flowers burgundy and old ones becoming more blue.

I sowed 4 seeds, and got 3 plants. I collected 11 pods, and 49 seeds (there were a few more pods formed later, but I decided I had enough). Seeds are green, and some have tiny purple speckles.







Apart from the interesting flower colour, I chose this accession because it has dp - darker bluish-green pods. It's subtle, but they are a different shade than standard green pods. And dp combined with gp - yellow pods - makes dark yellow pods.

I've made the cross Golden Sweet x Absolute Zero, to try for dark yellow pods.

[jayb]

Pretty and unusual flower colour and love the thought of dark yellow podded peas

[Silverleaf]

Different, isn't it!

[Galina]

Indeed the thought of dark yellow is interesting - wonder whether that is towards the orange spectrum, ie a more intensive yellow, or whether that is a duller, slightly brownish yellow.

I have always been puzzled by pea types where some seeds are purple speckled and others not. There are several peas with seeds that have more than one colour in an otherwise uniform pea. Not sure what is going on there.

Regarding pod colour I have always wondered what is going on with Bijou. More mature pods (just past the mangetout eating stage but not yet drying) are more yellow than green. For some reason it wasn't so obvious this year. Do older Absolute Zero pods change colour more?

Just looked at the GRIN pictures. They don't have your pod colour. Their pictures are different. Strange! Your pod is much duller green than theirs.

[Silverleaf]

Yeah, my pods do look different, but it could be a whole host of factors like lighting, growing conditions, the camera, etc!

I've noticed that with speckles too, there's a often a lot of variety in seeds, sometimes even within the same pod. The dominant allele F conditions violet spots (which can be modified by other genes that affect antho in some way). I guess it's also affected by other genes too. And no-one's going to select for a characteristic that only occurs in the dry seed so I doubt anyone's tried to stabilise the trait.

I think I might make a new post about seed coat colour, because there are a few genes that might be of interest there.

[jayb]

I think I might make a new post about seed coat colour, because there are a few genes that might be of interest there.

Great stuff

[Galina]

Great stuff

Yes please