Genetic Diversity for Agro-Nutritional Traits in African Landraces of Vigna subterranean Germplasm

Abstract

Breeding African indigenous crops with increased nutritional value has recently been strongly advocated as a sustainable rural-based strategy of partially meeting the nutritional requirements of a large proportion of Africa's population. This approach requires information on the extent of genetic diversity among available genetic resources. Forty bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean (L) Verdc) landraces of African origin were evaluated for agronomic attributes, protein, and grain mineral contents in a replicated field experiment at a single location across 2 years at the experimental field of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) (the Ward's method) were employed to study the variation pattern. Highly significant (P < 0.01) variation was detected among the landraces for all traits. Spearman's rank correlation indicated relatively high G × E interactions for all traits except Fe, K, and protein content, suggesting that single year testing is not sufficient for such traits. The first two PCs, which accounted for 40.81% of the multitrait variation, had all the agronomic traits and Cu as the main contributors. Grain protein content, Zn, Mg, K, Fe, and Ca were the most important loadings for the remaining PCs. Based on nutritional and components of yield traits, cluster analysis stratified landraces into five major groups. Concurrent improvement in pod yield and Zn, Fe, and protein contents could be possible by selecting promising parents from clusters 2 and 3. The diversity found in African landraces of bambara groundnut can be exploited for developing cultivars with improved nutritional value. ARTICLE HISTORY

Genetic variability, heritability and association among yield components and proximate composition of neglected and underutilized Bambara groundnut [Vigna subterranea (L) Verdc] accessions for varietal development in Ghana

“…Despite its nutritional and agronomic benefits, it is a paradox that the Bambara groundnut is a native African crop that produces nearly all the entirely balanced food components, is easy to farm, and requires little soil, should be confined to its continent ( Doku, 1996 ) with no released variants. In Ghana, the Bambara groundnut is still cultivated as landraces without any genetic improvement with its associated low yields ( Adu-Dapaah et al., 2014 , Alake and Alake, 2016 ). Researchers have however identified many beneficial traits for improvements of the crop ( Basu et al., 2007 , Karikari, 2000 , Mwale et al., 2007 , Ntundu et al., 2006 ).…”

Selecting Yield and Nutritional Traits in Sphenostylis stenocarpa Landraces for Food Improvement

“…In this study, the emphasis is on S. stenocarpa agro-nutritional yield. The yield accumulations occur through pathways in food nutrient translocations from different sources during photosynthesis [17]. Either significant or otherwise, yield improvement strategy must identify the contributory role of other trait components to yield improvement.…”

“…It was documented by the scholars that there are significant variations of about 0.05 percent, and 0.01 percent is used to provide information on genotype performance across sources of variations in the literature. [17] considered significant variations of seed weight, plant biomass and pod filling time in Vigna subterranean, respectively. In addition, the outlined selection statistics were used to identify the contributory roles of traits to yield.…”

Exploring phenotypic variation of diverse bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea L) origin and development of mini‐core collection for future breeding

“…The PCA which indicated that only few eigenvalues explained the total genetic variation found in the population further confirmed that considerable genetic differences existed in the studied germplasm. Alake and Alake (2016) used a few eigenvalues to elucidate diversity among bambara groundnut landrace with nutritional and agronomic traits. The PC1 accounted for 49.04% of total variation with pod dry weight, yield, seed dry weight, petiole length, plant height, number of pods per plant, days to maturity and number of leaves having more loadings.…”