Field data of seed dormancy and pod dehiscence in Hairy Vetch (V. villosa)

Hairy vetch (Vicia villosa Roth), a winter hardy annual legume, is a promising cover crop. To fully leverage its potential, seed production and field performance of V. villosa must be improved to facilitate producer adoption. Two classic domestication traits, seed dormancy (hard seed) and dehiscence (pod shatter), are selection targets in an ongoing breeding program. This study reports a genome-wide association study of 1,019 V. villosa individuals evaluated at two sites (Knox City, Texas and Corvallis, Oregon) for proportion of dormant seed, visual pod dehiscence scores, and two dehiscence surrogate measures (force to dehiscence and pod spiraling score).Trait performance varied between sites, but reliability (equivalent to heritability) across sites was strong (dormant seed proportion: 0.68; dehiscence score: 0.61; spiraling score: 0.42; force to dehiscence: 0.41). A major locus controlling seed dormancy was found (q-value: 1.29 x 10 -5 ; Chromosome 1: Position: 63611165), which can be...