Assessment of Cowpea Germplasms from Ghana and Mali Using Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) Markers

2014

English

Characterization of germplasms using molecular markers is very important for gene bank managers, since it allows more efficient sampling of available resources and removing duplicate genotypes. This technique doesn’t depend on environmental factors and shows with accuracy the variability between and within germplasm hence, improved identification of the genetic variation for breeders and better management of the available gene pool. A total of 94 accessions (47 from Ghana and 47 from Mali) were investigated in this study using 20 SSR markers to determine polymorphism within the germplasm. Among the 20 SSR markers screened, only 6 primer pairs were polymorphic. Seven to 27 alleles per primer were detected with polymorphic information content (PIC) varying from 0.61 to 0.92 with a mean of 0.83; allele frequency from 0.17 to 0.45 with a mean of 0.28; genetic diversity from 0.66 to 0.92 with a mean of 0.84; heterozygosity from 0.00 to 0.97 with 0.47 as a mean. The diversity observed can be exploited by breeders from the two countries (Ghana and Mali) for cowpea improvement.

Doumbia, I. Z.; Akromah, R.; Asibuo, J. Y.