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Selection for Toxicity in Single Plants of Indigofera endecaphylla by Biological Assay 1
Author(s) -
Britten E. J.,
Palafox A. L.,
Matsumoto H.
Publication year - 1959
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1959.00021962005100110006x
Subject(s) - statistician , principal (computer security) , library science , selection (genetic algorithm) , management , operations research , mathematics , statistics , computer science , economics , artificial intelligence , operating system
CREEPING indigo (Indigofera endecaphylla Jacq.) is tropical legume which shows great promise as a pasture plant but suffers the disadvantage of containing a toxic chemical, 3-nitropropionic acid. Evidence that this compound is responsible for toxicity in creeping indigo is given by Morris, Pag~in, and Warmke (4), .Cooke (3), and ~Britten, Matsumoto, and Palafox (2). The paper by Britten, Matsumoto, and Palafox also gives a brief review of the pertinent literature. A breeding program with the objective of producing a nontoxic creeping indigo is in progress at the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station. Control of flowering by artificial means for breeding is reported by Britten and Laude (1). The first objective of the creeping indigo breeding program was the discovery of plants with low content of the chemical responsible for toxicity. It was found early that introductions of seed from various parts of the world produced plants which differed greatly in their content of 3-nitropropionic acid. An extensive screening program using a semi-quantitative chemical method produced a number of plants which were selected on a basis of low and high content of 3-nitropropionic acid. The second objective, reported here, was to re-evaluate these plants on the basis of a biological test. The objective of the present study was to devise a practical method for the biological assay of single plants of creeping indigo. The selection of an organism presented a twofold problem, the first requirement of the test animal was that it would readily accept creeping indigo and at the same time show sensitivity to its toxic properties. The second requirement was that the organism be small, so that one plant could supply sufficient forage to enough test animals to give statistically significant results. This paper reports the use of day-old chicks for evaluation of toxicity in single plants of creeping indigo.