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Nevertheless, the potential of P. tuberregium to produce EPS and fungus biomass for food and medicinal uses is underexplored. On addition, few studies have been conducted to identify the best cultivation conditions and extensive nutrient

Good practices at harvest and postharvest could be useful in obtaining nutritious mango with high minerals and vitamins. The present study evaluated effect of harvest handling and postharvest conditions on the level of minerals and vitamins using standard methods. Ripe, half-ripe and unripe mangoes were harvested on parent plant and on ground around parent plant. The half-ripe and unripe mangoes were further divided to include heat ripened mangoes. The mango samples were separately stored naturally at 25±3oC and heat ripened at 37±5oC for 0 to 10 day after harvest (dah). The results show Ijebu-Mamu mangoes could cater for reference dietary intake of Vit C. Mango harvested on parent plant has highest level of minerals and vitamins than those picked on ground. Ripe mango has highest level of minerals, half ripe mango presented highest level of vits. B1 and B2 and unripe mango has highest level of Fe and Vit. C. Heat caused increased level of minerals and reduced level of vitamins. The minerals show increased level from 0 to 4 or 6 dah while vitamins reduced from 0 till 10 dah. High level of minerals and vitamins was obtained with optimum integrated harvest and postharvest condition of half-ripe mango naturally ripened at 6 dah. The present results highlight effects of the assessed harvest handling and postharvest conditions and their co-optimization that might be necessary for high minerals and vitamins in mango.

Thirty-one improved cultivars and five Nigerian landraces of cassava were assessed at genomic DNA level with 16 SSR primers for genetic diversity study. The minimum number of SSR primers that could readily be used for identification of the 36 cassava genotypes was also determined. For the genetic diversity study, the similarity coefficients generated between improved cultivars and Nigerian landraces ranged from 0.42 to 0.84, and 12 distinct DNA cluster groups were identified at 0.70 coefficients using Numerical Taxonomy and Multivariate Analysis System software package. For the genotype identification study, the 16 SSR primers were screened by their polymorphic information content (PIC) values. Five SSR primers that have PIC values between 0.50 and 0.67 were selected and further assessed using simple arithmetic progression combination method. The results obtained revealed a combination of these 5 primers from SSR primers collection at IITA that could readily distinguish the 36 cassava genotypes at 0.93 similarity coefficient. These five primers clustered the 36 cassavas into 16 groups at 0.70 similarity coefficient. Application of this few SSR primers would ultimately reduce the cost and time of research for genetic diversity and genotype identification studies for the genetic improvement program of cassava.

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