Genetic diversity in Colocasia esculenta and Xanthosoma mafaffa in Togo, West Africa

Abstract

Taro and new cocoyam are root and leaf crops commonly grown in tropical to warm temperate regions. In Togo, they are neglected and underutilised. Here we report the genetic diversity of 26 accessions of taro and 101 accessions of new cocoyam. Analysis of simple sequence repeats revealed low polymorphic information content of 0.43 and 0.25 in taro and new cocoyam, respectively. PCA scatterplots and Neighbour Joining dendrograms based on the SSR data clustered accessions into groups that more-or-less correspond to morphological diversity in both species. AMOVA within and between morphological groups revealed greater variances within groups than between. This indicates weak genetic differentiation between morphological groups, particularly for taro. Genetic diversity was greater among taro cultivars. Taro has a longer history of introduction and dispersal in Africa, and has had more opportunity for multiple introduction and local cultivar development. Different strategies are suggested for future development of these crops in Togo and Africa. For taro, further studies of existing diversity and recent experimental introduction, has spread widely in Africa with little genetic diversity. For this crop, international collaboration is needed to clarify taxonomy, and to introduced further cultivars for evaluation under local conditions in Africa.

Comparative Study of Dormant Bud Development in Taro [Xanthosoma sagittifolium, Xanthosoma sp. and Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] in Relation to their Size and Localization on the Principal Tuber

“…On the other hand, Colocasia varieties (C3, CD) produced more tubers (5 to 6) than Xanthosoma ones (2 to 3, on average). Similar differences were also highlighted for growth and its attributes plant height, diameter of pseudo-stem, petiole length, lamina length, lamina width, leaf area and yield attributes, number of corms, cormels and suckers per plant, cormel weight and yield per plant among Colocasia esculenta, Xanthosoma sagittifolium and Xanthosoma mafaffa genotypes, cultivars or accessions (ReyesCastro et al [34]; Mengistu [35]; Bammite et al [31]; Nwofia et al [36]; Okoli et al [33]).…”

“…Similar observations have also been made by other authors. Thus, Bammite et al [31] observed that plant height is slightly higher in Xanthosoma mafaffa. Touckia et al [32] reported good vegetative growth in Xanthosoma varieties expressed in particular by higher lamina length and width, while in Colocasia, production was better with two to three times more tubers.…”

Taro in West Africa: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities

“…In recent years, scientists in WA and beyond have been gathering information, developing strategies, and evaluating stress factors to help to improve the taro crop [8,18,19,58,64,[94][95][96][97][98]. Two of the improvements achieved to date are outlined as follows: i.…”

“…This helps to ensure that collection programs are executed using international standard procedures; ii. Characterization of local and exotic germplasm for agro-morphological traits, disease resistance, and nutritional qualities, to be used as the basis for taro improvement: Several authors have used morphological characterization to evaluate taro cultivars, including agromorphological traits, diseases, and flowering ability [58,75,90,97]. This has helped the classification of taro into different morphotypes, which can then be used in taro improvement programs.…”

Oryzalin-Induced Taro (Colocasia Esculenta L.) Tetraploid and Diploid Assessment for Growth and Agronomic Traits

“…Although generative propagation can occur naturally, its monoculture and hetero-culture vegetative propagation also exist (Habibah and Astika, 2020). Most parts of taro plants are edible, including the tuberous portion, stolon, leaf blades, petioles, and flowers (Bammite et al, 2021). Taro tubers, which contain 70%-80% starch utilized as a staple food instead of rice, ranked ninth among food crops worldwide (Rashmi et al, 2018).…”