Cold-tolerant germplasm identified in annual medics (Medicago spp.) collection of National Plant Gene Bank of Iran

ABSTRACT

Annual medics are feed legumes that can be used as a cover crop or green manure. Species such as Medicago scutellata are sensitive to cold stress. To identify cold-tolerant germplasm, 351 accessions of Iranian annual medics, belonging to 13 species, were evaluated. Growth rate was scored for each accession from autumn to spring. Based on first-year results, M. coronata, M. laciniata, M. littoralis, M. turbinata, and M. scutellata were identified as cold-sensitive species, whereas four species [M. minima (5 accessions), M. noeana (2 accessions), M. rigiduloides (4 accessions), and M. rigidula (5 accessions)] were found to be cold-tolerant and tested further using a randomized complete-block design with three replications. Significant differences (p < 0.01) among accessions for agronomic traits (forage-, seed-, and pod-yield; percentage of green cover) were detected. M. rigiduloides, M. rigidula, M. minima, and M. noeana were cold-tolerant in descending order. Such cold-tolerant accessions can be used in breeding programs to develop cold-tolerant varieties.

KEYWORDS:

• Abiotic stress
• Medicago
• forage
• germplasm evaluation
• multivariate analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research is partially funded by projectNo. 2-011-122300-00-0000-85118 of the Agricultural- Research-Education & Extension Organization (AREEO), Iran.