Abstract

Background: Korarima [Aframomum corrorima (Braun) P.C.M. Jansen] is a spice crop native to Ethiopia. Understanding the extent and partitioning of diversity within and among crop landraces and their wild relatives is among the first steps in conserving and measuring their genetic potential. The present study is aimed at characterizing the population genetic structure and relationships between cultivated and wild korarima in the southwestern part of Ethiopia.Results: We analyzed a total of 195 individuals representing seven wild and fourteen cultivated populations. Eleven polymorphic simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers were used. We observed a total of 53 alleles across the eleven loci and individuals. In total, 32 alleles were detected in the cultivated populations, whereas 49 alleles were detected in the wild populations. We found higher genetic diversity in wild populations than in the cultivated counterpart. This result implies the potential of wild korarima as a possible source for novel alleles contributing to the improvement of cultivated korarima. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed significant but low differentiation between cultivated and wild korarima populations. Similarly, neighbour-joining and STRUCTURE analyses did not group cultivated and wild populations into two distinct clusters. The lack of clear differentiation between cultivated and wild populations could be explained by historical and contemporary gene flow between the two gene pools.Conclusion: The 11 SSR loci developed in this study could be employed to examine genetic diversity and population structure of korarima in other countries as well as other Aframomum species. From the five administrative zones considered in this study, the Bench-Magi and Sheka zone showed populations with high genetic diversity, and these populations could be used as a potential starting point for in-situ and ex-situ germplasm conservation and korarima improvement through breeding programs after proper agronomic evaluation.

Keywords

Aframomum corrorima; Korarima; Genetic diversity; Simple sequence repeats; Genetic structure; Genetic differentiation; Gene flow

Published in

BMC Genetics
2017, Volume: 18, article number: 72

SLU Authors

• Bryngelsson, Tomas

  • Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Teshome, Abel

  • Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

• Dida, Mulatu Geleta

  • Department of Plant Breeding, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG2 End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture


UKÄ Subject classification

Genetics and Breeding


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-017-0540-4

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/90827