TY - JOUR

T1 - Genetic and morphological diversity of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) entries from East Africa

AU - Menssen, Max

AU - Linde, Marcus

AU - Otunga Omondi, Emmanuel

AU - Abukutsa-Onyango, Mary

AU - Dinssa, Fekadu Fufa

AU - Winkelmann, Traud

N1 - Funding Information: The authors gratefully acknowledge funding within the project HORTINLEA by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) within the framework of the program GlobE − Global Food Security. We acknowledge World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) for providing germplasm. We appreciate technical assistance from David Odongo, Sylviah Buleti, Betty Orangi, Francis Wetende, Rose Khayanga and Jane Were. Finally, we thank Vitalina Karfik for assistance in the cytological and flow cytometric analyses. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier B.V. Copyright: Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2017/12/19

Y1 - 2017/12/19

N2 - Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is widely grown by subsistence farmers in West and East Africa where its grain and leaves are sources of highly valuable food, due to their high contents of proteins, minerals and vitamins. Therefore, cowpea could play a significant role in mitigating malnutrition such as micronutrient deficiencies. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the performance in agronomic traits of cowpea entries (released and farmers’ cultivars, and gene bank accessions) from different sources, and to assess the extent of genetic diversity in this material to provide basic information for its use in breeding programs. A total of 15 entries were evaluated. All entries were morphologically uniform, except the farmers’ local cultivars. Fresh leaf yield varied from 34.6 to 52.8 g per plant and days to 50% flowering from 64 to 82 days. Hundred seed weight ranged from 7.67 to 15.12 g. On average, the number of pods ranged from 4.8 to 15.6 pods per plant. No correlation between fresh leaf yield and other traits was detected, whereas the number of pods per plant and the hundred seed weight were negatively correlated. Genetic diversity was assessed on five genotypes per entry using 544 Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) and 18 microsatellite markers. Genetic distances calculated using the Jaccard algorithm ranged from 0.002 to 0.193 among genotypes of the same entry and from 0.098 to 0.301 for genotypes from different entries. A principle coordinate analysis separated four entries from the rest. Although the consensus tree based on Neighbor Joining trees was unable to resolve the whole cluster, an assignment of most of the entries into entry-specific clades was possible.

AB - Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is widely grown by subsistence farmers in West and East Africa where its grain and leaves are sources of highly valuable food, due to their high contents of proteins, minerals and vitamins. Therefore, cowpea could play a significant role in mitigating malnutrition such as micronutrient deficiencies. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the performance in agronomic traits of cowpea entries (released and farmers’ cultivars, and gene bank accessions) from different sources, and to assess the extent of genetic diversity in this material to provide basic information for its use in breeding programs. A total of 15 entries were evaluated. All entries were morphologically uniform, except the farmers’ local cultivars. Fresh leaf yield varied from 34.6 to 52.8 g per plant and days to 50% flowering from 64 to 82 days. Hundred seed weight ranged from 7.67 to 15.12 g. On average, the number of pods ranged from 4.8 to 15.6 pods per plant. No correlation between fresh leaf yield and other traits was detected, whereas the number of pods per plant and the hundred seed weight were negatively correlated. Genetic diversity was assessed on five genotypes per entry using 544 Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) and 18 microsatellite markers. Genetic distances calculated using the Jaccard algorithm ranged from 0.002 to 0.193 among genotypes of the same entry and from 0.098 to 0.301 for genotypes from different entries. A principle coordinate analysis separated four entries from the rest. Although the consensus tree based on Neighbor Joining trees was unable to resolve the whole cluster, an assignment of most of the entries into entry-specific clades was possible.

KW - African indigenous vegetables

KW - DNA content

KW - Genetic diversity

KW - Microsatellites

KW - Molecular marker

KW - Morphological diversity

KW - Yield

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85030861399&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.scienta.2017.08.003

DO - 10.1016/j.scienta.2017.08.003

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85030861399

VL - 226

SP - 268

EP - 276

JO - Scientia horticulturae

JF - Scientia horticulturae

SN - 0304-4238

ER -