%0 Journal Article
%T Morphological Characterisation and Variability Analysis of African Yam Bean (<i>Sphenostylis</i> <i>stenocarpa</i>           <i>    </i>Hochst. ex. A. Rich) Harms
%A Ademola I. Aina
%J Scientific & Academic Publishing
%D 2020
%R 10.5923/j.plant.20201003.01
%X African yam bean (<i>Sphenostylis</i> <i>stenocarpa</i>) is a legume that produces tubers rich in protein and with potential to contribute to food and nutrition security in tropical Africa. African yam bean (AYB) is underused despite its nutritional profile. Knowledge of the genetic diversity present in AYB germplasm would be beneficial to the utilisation of its genetic resources in the improvement of the crop. This study aims to understand the genetic diversity in a collection of 50 accessions of AYB. Thirty morphological and taxonomic phenotypic traits of high descriptive value were characterized and the levels of diversity among the accessions were assessed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), Correlation, Principal Components, and Clustering analysis. The 50 accessions were grouped into four clusters of 2-17 members at a dissimilarity index of 0.7. Out of 30 morphological variables analysed, eye colour pattern was the most discriminatory and it classified the accessions in the proportion of 38% with white or grey testa with incision-like eye pattern and 62% with brown testa and varying patterns from narrow stripe to fork-like or incision-like eye pattern around the hilum. The stepwise discriminant and frequency procedures in SAS also identified other phenotypic variables with significant discriminatory attributes. Accessions with desirable agronomic characters such as lower number of days to flowering, high number of pods per plant and total seed weight per plant were also identified in this study
%K African yam bean
%K Genetic diversity
%K Accessions
%K Phenotypic traits
%U http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.plant.20201003.01.html