Abstract

Background: Plectranthus edulis (Vatke) Agnew (locally known as Ethiopian dinich or Ethiopian potato) is one of the most economically important edible tuber crops indigenous to Ethiopia. Evaluating the extent of genetic diversity within and among populations is one of the first and most important steps in breeding and conservation measures. Hence, this study was aimed at evaluating the genetic diversity and population structure of this crop using collections from diverse agro-ecologies in Ethiopia.Results: Twenty polymorphic expressed sequence tag based simple sequence repeat (EST-SSRs) markers were developed for P. edulis based on EST sequences of P. barbatus deposited in the GenBank. These markers were used for genetic diversity analyses of 287 individual plants representing 12 populations, and a total of 128 alleles were identified across the entire loci and populations. Different parameters were used to estimate the genetic diversity within populations; and gene diversity index (GD) ranged from 0.31 to 0.39 with overall mean of 0.35. Hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed significant but low population differentiation with only 3% of the total variation accounted for variation among populations. Likewise, cluster and STRUCTURE analyses did not group the populations into sharply distinct clusters, which could be attributed to historical and contemporary gene flow and the reproductive biology of the crop.Conclusions: These newly developed EST-SSR markers are highly polymorphic within P. edulis and hence are valuable genetic tools that can be used to evaluate the extent of genetic diversity and population structure of not only P. edulis but also various other species within the Lamiaceae family. Among the 12 populations studied, populations collected from Wenbera, Awi and Wolaita showed a higher genetic diversity as compared to other populations, and hence these areas can be considered as hot spots for in-situ conservation as well as for identification of genotypes that can be used in breeding programs.

Keywords

Ethiopian dinich; Expressed sequence tags; Genetic diversity; Plectranthus edulis; Population structure; Simple sequence repeats

Published in

BMC Genetics
2018, Volume: 19, article number: 92
Publisher: BMC

SLU Authors

• 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

Agricultural Science


Publication identifier

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-018-0682-z

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/96990