Articles from Innovation Lab work in ‘Peanut Science’

Two papers based on research conducted under the Peanut Innovation Lab and its precursor, the Peanut & Mycotoxin Innovation Lab, recently were published in Peanut Science. The peer-reviewed online research journal included one article on the cost-benefit of production interventions in northern Ghana and another article about crossing modern peanut with a peanut ancestor.

One of the articles, written by longtime Innovation Lab-collaborator Mumuni Abudulai, covers the increased yield and aflatoxin mitigation resulting from different combinations of production interventions in Northern Ghana. Abudulai, who recently retired as chief research scientist at the Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, describes eight experiments conducted in 2016 and 2017 in northern Ghana to compare yield, financial returns, pest reaction, and aflatoxin contamination at harvest with traditional farmer versus improved practices. The research analyzes the impact of improved crop management tools such as applying calcium-containing fertilizer, weeding at various stages of growth, drying harvested nuts on a tarp and storing in hermetically-sealed bags.

Find the article here: Abudulai, M, G Mahama, I Dzomeku, A Seidu, I Sugri, J A Nboyine, N Opoku, et al. 2020. “Evaluation of Agricultural Practices to Increase Yield and Financial Return and Minimize Aflatoxin Contamination in Peanut in Northern Ghana.” Peanut Science 47 (December): 156–62.

Similar work done in central Ghana was conducted around the same time and published last year, as well.

In another recent article in Peanut Science, Davis Gimode, described work to analyze the seed composition profile of a chromosome segment substitution line (CSSL) population of peanut. The lines were developed by crossing Fleur 11, a farmer preferred Spanish cultivar from West Africa with a synthetic allotetraploid. The latter was developed by crossing A. duranensis to A. ipaensis and tetraploidizing the resultant hybrid. Subsequent selection with genetic markers resulted in a population comprising lines with small chromosome segments from the wild in a cultivated peanut background. The objective of the study was to characterize the protein, total oil, fatty acid and sugar profiles of the population. 

Find that article here: Gimode, D, Y Chu, L Dean, C Holbrook, D Fonceka, and P Ozias-Akins. 2020. “Seed Composition Survey of a Peanut CSSL Population Reveals Introgression Lines with Elevated Oleic/Linoleic Profiles.” Peanut Science 47 (December): 139–49.

Gimode worked on Innovation Lab’s genomics projects while pursuing a PhD through the University of Georgia.