MOLECULAR DYNAMICS OF TUBER AND SEED YIELD IN Sphenostylis stenocarpa (Hochst. ex A. Rich. Harms) (AFRICAN YAM BEAN)
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Description
Sphenostylis stenocarpa (African yam bean - AYB) is an understudied and opportunity crop
with the potential to contribute to food security It is a versatile legume that produces both edible
seeds and tubers. AYB faces under-exploitation due to limited understanding and challenges
as well as an unabetted threat to its diversity like several other indigenous plant species.
Expanding the diversity of global food sources has become imperative. This study investigated
the molecular dynamics in AYB by assessing the genetic diversity in non-tuber and tuberproducing
landraces, identified SNP markers associated with tuber formation and determined
the relationship between seed and tuber production. The study evaluated accessions from the
Genetic Resources Centre of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan.
Phenotypic data was generated from monitored growth, genotyping was conducted using
DArTseq technology, with SNP data generated afterward. Phenotypic data employed
clustering, correlation analysis and distribution plots. Genome-wide Association Studies
(GWAS) using the GAPIT package in R elucidated population structure and identified SNPs
responsible for yield. Multiple traits such as NoPods, Hundred sdcount, TSdwghtPPL,
TPodwgth indicate a close association with each other showing a strong indication with the
accessions and yield. While clustering for seed and tubers showed four and five clusters each.
BLUEd traits and 2254 SNP markers from 92 genotypes were used for the association analysis.
Using the BLINK, FarmCPU, GLM, and MLM models. Twelve significant SNP markers were
identified to be associated with three African yam bean yield traits (Tuber weight, Seed
thickness, and Pod width). These results have the potential to accelerate marker-assisted
selection in molecular breeding.
Keywords
QH Natural history, QH301 Biology