Mutant lines derived from Ethyl methanesulfonate treatment exhibit agronomic gain in Kersting’s groundnut [Macrotyloma geocarpum (Harms) Maréchal & Baudet]

Abstract Background Macrotyloma geocarpum is a socio-economically important and nutrient-rich opportunity legume crop in which a broader genetic basis is required for an accelerated higher-yielding cultivar development. Materials and methods Here, we reported for the first time the performance of a set of 300 mutants developed along with five local checks for their agronomic features spanning vegetative, physiological, developmental, seed and yield traits in an augmented design scheme. Descriptive statistics, correlation and multivariate analyses were combined to analyze the data. Results Broader genotypic variability was observed in grain yield. Mutants were top outperformers for all traits. For instance, we observed a four-fold variation for grain yield between the best check (Check 3: 643.7 kg.ha⁻ ¹) and the most productive mutant (ML645: 2,942.42 kg.ha⁻ ¹) genotypes. Higher positive correlation (r = 0.98, p < 0.001) was recorded between the time to 50% flowering and time to maturity while higher negative one (r = -0.92, p < 0.001) was recorded between plant height and time to maturity. Heritability estimates ranged from 1.85 to 96.4% and two traits including seed length and grain yield exhibited high heritability estimates. The 305 genotypes were categorized in three clusters, with Cluster 3 encompassing individuals with the best characteristics. Conclusion Genotypes of this Cluster 3 including for instance mutants ML645, ML619, ML10126 and ML1000 offer a good opportunity for market development and can be leveraged to advance elite individuals’ selection for M. geocarpum improvement.