a b s t r a c tTo set up a rational collecting strategy for germplasm of the edible-seeded cucurbit Cucumeropsis mannii, a study was conducted using 24 morphological and seven putative enzyme markers to determine the intra-specific variability from 16 and 22 accessions (representing three cultivars), respectively. The analysis of variance, showed a significant difference between the three cultivars. Principal component analysis pointed out a variation among individuals, mainly on the basis of flower, fruit, and seed size. Dendrogram with UPGMA method allowed clustering of the cultivars. Genetic diversity indices estimated equalled: 9.96% for the proportion of polymorphic loci (P), 1.10 for the number of alleles (A) and 0.023 for observed heterozygosity (H o ). The level of the within accessions genetic diversity (H S ¼ 0.078) was higher than among accessions (D ST ¼ 0.042). Nei's genetic distances between the three cultivars were also low (0.079-0.147), indicating a high degree of similarity of the analysed cultivars.Crown

Thirty accessions of Lagenaria siceraria from the Nangui Abrogoua University germplasm collection were analyzed using three microsatellite markers. The average Polymorphism Information Content (PIC) value was 0.61. The average observed heterozygosity value (H0 = 0.631) compared to the average expected heterozygosity value (He = 0.645) did not show significant differences in the selected accessions, which suggested random mating in the set of accessions. Within accession inbreeding estimate (FIS), was 40% and was not significantly different from zero. The reduction of heterozygotes was likely the result of presence of null alleles. Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) within and among 30 accessions of L. siceraria revealed that 39% of the total variation resides among accessions and 61% within accessions. Accession structuring pattern derived from Bayesian clustering analysis revealed two clusters. Based on the genetic structure of the accessions analyzed, a sampling strategy to collect and conserve genetic resources of L. siceraria was suggested.

The purpose of this study is to determine the morphological diversity and distribution of Garcinia kola Heckel (Clusiaceae) in two preferential agroecological growth areas in Côte d'Ivoire, for the sustainable management of the species. Ninety-four (94) trees of G. kola were sampled in Affery (south) and Biankouma (west) and characterized on the basis of 13 quantitative characteristics of the fruit, the general appearance of a plant, leaves and seeds. This study revealed the existence of very significant variability and differences within the trees sampled for most characteristics. Very strong correlations were found among the characteristics of the fruits. On the basis of these characteristics, it emerged that the fruits of the Biankouma area are larger than those of Affery. Multivariate analyses show that diversity is structured with tree distribution into four distinct groups based on the following discriminating characteristics: fruit height (Hfr), leaf width (largF), seed mass (Mgr) and trunk diameter (Dm). These parameters can be used as a basis for selecting and maintaining the high variability of G. kola. Analysis of the geographical distribution of trees, based on the nearest neighbour model, revealed an aggregate distribution in both areas.

A hundred and seventy-one oleaginous watermelon accessions either collected from different countries or obtained from gene banks were evaluated and compared based on 11 quantitative morphological traits. Principal component analysis on 11 traits revealed 81.19% of the total variability and pointed out variations among accessions, mainly on the basis of fruit size and weight. The dendrogram and factorial discriminant analysis clustered the accessions in four groups. The multivariate analysis of variance showed a significant difference between the four groups and accessions of the group 2 had higher agronomic performances. The confusion matrix gave the details about accessions assignment and pointed out that breeders must have recourse to several multivariate analyses to have better agromorphological classification of accessions. The traits related to fruit size and weight were the most accession distinctive. Consequently, fruit morphological traits could be used for accession identification during collecting missions.

Being difficult to regenerate and maintain the seeds, the oleaginous bottle gourd was investigated using nine agromorphological traits and 31 amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Specifically, the study was conducted to determine the intra-specific variability of a total of 173 accessions, which were identified from five agro-ecological regions from Côte d'Ivoire (Centre, East, North and South). Then, the genetic diversity and relationships within accessions were studied using AFLP markers. This characterization using both morphological and AFLP markers was realized in order to ultimately build a reliable core collection. The discriminant analysis, using nine quantitative traits, reveals plant length and seeds number per fruit as discriminating characteristics. From the accessions used for the agromorphological study, 148 were able to be differentiated by the AFLP markers. A range of 52 to 113 bands were amplified per primer combination. As revealed by the analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), 28% of the total variation resides among accessions and 72% occurs within populations. The AMOVA computed in order to differentiate cultivars, displayed the same trends when no prior grouping of accessions was considered. The differentiation within cultivar (97%) was more than that, among cultivars (3%). Tree topologies inferred by neighbour-joining analysis reflected no clear cut off grouping. To group accessions, we used a Bayesian clustering analysis which exhibited two clusters. Using the informativeness of the primer combinations analysed in the present study, an orientation was given for the choice of the accessions which would be used to build a core collection.