Genetic diversity and population structure of Ethiopian finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn) genotypes using inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers

Abstract

Eleusine coracana is an annual allotetraploid (2n=4x=36) that belongs to grass family, Poaceae. This research aimed to investigate level of genetic diversity of 80 accessions using ISSR markers. DNA was extracted from a bulk of three plants per accession using a modified CTAB method. Six ISSR primers amplified a total of 45 clear and reproducible bands. The total genetic diversity (H) and Shannon's diversity information index (I) for the entire populations was 0.28 and 0.41, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance in both grouping and without grouping revealed larger genetic diversity within the populations (58.54%) than among populations (41.45%). Of the total genetic diversity, 5.88% was attributed to populations within groups, 38.33% was attributed to among groups and 55.79% was attributed to differences within populations. Both unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic average phenograms and a neighbor joining trees were constructed for the individuals and populations using Jaccard's similarity coefficient. Most individuals from all populations tended to form their own cluster, while only few of the individuals were distributed all over the tree. Generally, the result of the present study confirmed the presence of genetically diversified accessions that can be used to improve the productivity, collection, conservation and sustainable use.Key words: Eleusine coracana, gene flow, genetic diversity, inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) marker, unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA). INTRODUCTIONEleusine coracana, commonly called finger millet, is an annual allotetraploid (2n=4x=36; genome constitution AABB) cultivated plant that belongs to the grass family Poaceae, subfamily Chloridoideae. There are about nine species under the genus, Eleusine Gaertn. Two species, Eleusine indica and Eleusine floccifolia, are believed to be the genome donors to the cultivated species, E. coracana (Bisht and Mukai, 2001).It is extensively cultivated in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa and India and is known to save *Corresponding author. E-mail: haftom12388@yahoo.com. the lives of poor farmers from starvation at times of extreme drought (Kotschi, 2006). It is adapted to a wide range of environments and grown mainly by subsistence farmers. Finger millet serves as a food security crop because of its high nutritional value, excellent storage qualities and its importance as a low input crop (Dida et al., 2007). Ethiopia is one of the major producers of finger millet in addition to Uganda, India, Nepal and China and it is also native to the highlands of the country. Finger millet plays an important role in both the dietary needs and incomes of many rural households like other African countries due to its richness in fiber, iron and calcium (Babu et al., 2007).Assessment of genetic diversity on the basis of morphological traits is not very reliable, as it may be influenced by the environment, and the number of traits with known inheritance is small. Molecular markers have the distinct advantages...

Phenotypic variation and genotypic diversity of Eleusine coracana L. Gaertn (finger millet) germplasm collection in Malawi

“…In the current study, genetic analysis revealed a 48% variation within and a 53% variation among the genotyped nger millet germplasm collections. This is in agreement with previous ndings by Haftom et al, (2017), who reported 58.54% of variation within population and 41.45% among population. Similar ndings by Brhane et al, (2022) reported that AMOVA for the seven nger millet revealed a total variation of 70% and 30% within and between populations respectively.…”

Novel Expressed Sequence Tag-Derived and Other Genomic Simple Sequence Repeat Markers Revealed Genetic Diversity in Ethiopian Finger Millet Landrace Populations and Cultivars

“…However, a significant proportion of published research outputs in finger millet have limitations in terms of sample size, representativeness of diverse ecological conditions or type, and the number of markers used. In the case of Ethiopian finger millet germplasm, a few research publications used morphological (Tsehaye and Kebebew, 2002;Daba and Debelo, 2008;Tesfaye and Mengistu, 2017;Kebede et al, 2019) and DNA markers such as random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) (Babu et al, 2007) and inter simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) (Brhane et al, 2017). Hence, further genetic diversity assessment is needed for crucial insight into the gene pool of the crop in the country.…”

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) improvement: Challenges and prospects—A review

“…Various molecular markers have been used to characterize the genetic diversity and population structure of finger millet. These include Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) (Bezaweletaw, 2011; Pandian et al, 2018), Sequence‐Characterized Amplified Region (SCAR) (Reddy et al, 2010), Inter‐Simple Sequence Repeats (ISSR) (Brhane, Haileselassie, & Tesfaye, 2017; Pandian et al, 2018), Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) (Babu et al, 2018; Gimode et al, 2016; Lee et al, 2017), Expressed Sequence Tag‐derived Simple Sequence Repeat markers (EST‐SSR) (Brhane et al, 2021; Bwalya et al, 2020) and SNP (Backiyalakshmi et al, 2021; Brhane, Haileselassie, Tesfaye, Ortiz, Hammenhag, Abreha, & Geleta, 2022; Gimode et al, 2016).…”