Genetic Diversity of a Collection of Solanum macrocarpon from Burkina Faso Revealed by Microsatellite Markers

Solanum macrocarpon is an important vegetable native to Africa, with leaves and fruits. It is a potential source of income and nutrients that contribute to the nutritional balance of the local population's food intake. However, S. macrocarpon did not attract the interest of researchers in relation to other Solanum species. Indeed, knowledge of the genetic diversity of S. macrocarpon (Gboma Eggplant) in Africa is limited. Although agronomic variations and relationships generally reveal important traits of interest to breeders. This study attempts to estimate the genetic diversity of a collection of S. macrocarpon (32 accessions) from Burkina Faso using SSR markers. The results show that eleven (11) of the 22 SSR markers tested were informative for phylogenetic analysis and could serve as a perfect reference for diversity studies. The 11 polymorphic SSR primers selected amplified 22 alleles with an average of 2 per primer. The polymorphism information content (PIC) varied from 0.212 for emg01B17 to 0.437 for emd15D09. The genetic distances between the accessions studied varied from 0 to 0.68 and made it possible to distinguish three genetic groups. The expected Nei (He) heterozygosity for the genetic group ranged from 0.140 for group III to 0.261 for group I. The eleven pairs of SSR markers sufficiently discriminated against the accessions of S. macrocarpon. The results of this study will be useful for the conservation and genetic improvement of the S. macrocarpon species in Burkina Faso