Developing the key germplasm of Chinese peanut landraces based on phenotypic traits

Chinese peanut landraces are important parent resources in peanut breeding due to their abundant genetic diversity. In this study, a total of 2741 original accessions from peanut seed bank were divided into 26 groups based on their botanical variety and ecological distribution. The key accessions were established based on the analysis of 13 phenotypic traits by the square root strategy, UPGMA clustering within groups and random sampling in individual clusters, and evaluated by t -test, F -test, Chi-squared test, ranging, the ratio of phenotypic retention, and phenotypic correlation analyses. Finally, the principal components analysis (PCA) and the histogram analysis were used to re-confirm the key germplasm. The total of 259 as a key germplasm was selected, accounting for 9.4% of total accessions, which included 14 of var. fastigiata , 85 of var. vulgaris , 42 of var. hirsuta , 103 of var. hypogaea and 15 of irregular type. There were no significant differences ( P