GENETIC DIVERSITY IN LANDRACES OF BAMBARA GROUNDNUT FOUND IN NAMIBIA USING RAPD MARKERS

Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean (L.) Verdc.), an indigenous African legume valued for its drought tolerance, is popular in most parts of Africa.
Although a widely used crop in Africa and has been collected by many scientists, its genetic makeup has not yet been fully exploited.
Many landraces are found in Namibia, with similar characteristics but different names.
The study aimed to analyze genetic diversity among 13 landraces of Bambara groundnut commonly found in Namibia.
DNA was extracted from young leaves using the Wizard® Genomic DNA Purification Kit from Promega and run on a 1% agarose gel for visualization.
Random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers that showed results for other Bambara groundnut species were used for the study.
Thirteen random primers were screened to assess their ability to detect polymorphism in Bambara; 7 of these primers were selected for the study.
The relationship among the 13 landraces was analyzed using cluster analysis based on Bray-Curtis similarity and a similarity dendogram drawn, using a Primer 5 analysis package.
A similarity matrix and dendrogram were produced.
The analysis showed that there were high similarities among the landraces, which showed inbreeding of the crop.

II International Symposium on Underutilized Plant Species: Crops for the Future – Beyond Food Security

C. Mukakalisa, M. Kandawa-Schulz, I. Mapaure

PCR, Vigna subterranean, landraces, Primer 5, Bray-Curtis similarity

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.979.76