Impact of environment on morphometric characteristics of pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) genotypes through seed digital imaging analysis

Abstract

Computer seed digital imaging was utilized in this study to evaluate the differences in seed metric traits in twenty genotypes of pigeon  pea as affected by the seed production environment. InSEEDLE™ software digital imaging analysis was used to differentiate the seed  metric characters. For every replication, a hundred seeds were placed on the lighting hood in such a way that the embryo axis of the seed  faced the image analysis system. Seeds were automatically analyzed by the scanner and the image of the seed was recorded by the  'WinSEEDLE™'. The procedure was repeated three times. The parameters observed were seed area, straight length, curve length, straight  width, curve width, width length, and seed perimeter. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (anova) and principal  component analysis. The result revealed that the pigeon pea genotypes evaluated were highly variable in all the seed metric  traits evaluated. NSWCC-34C, NSWCC-34b, NSWCC-50 and NSWCC-34 were identified with consistent and high seed morphometric  characteristic performance for most of the attributes examined, hence, an important tool in selecting superior pigeon pea genotypes and  could be used as parental material.