Effect of Leaf Type, Pubescence Type and Non-Nodulating Genes on Yield and Quality Characters in Soybean1

The effect of qualitative genes governing characters like narrow leaf, pentafoliate leaf, glabrous, curly, sparse and dense pubescence types and non-nodulating type on yield and yield contributing characters was studied. The narrow leaf and pentafoliate leaf types were not significantly different as compared to normal leaf type for the characters studied in both the backgrounds except for leaf area in narrow leaf type, indicating no pleiotropic effect of these genes. Medium plant height, smaller seed size and low yielding ability of glabrous type may be due to the pleiotropic effect of gene P1. No visible pleiotropic effect of curly, sparse and dense pubescence types was observed. The non-nodulating lines gave significantly less protein, smaller seeds and more oil than the normal lines