Molecular Diversity Analysis of Sweet Sorghum [Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench] Collections of Ethiopia as revealed by Microsatellite Markers

Molecular Diversity Analysis of Sweet Sorghum [Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench] Collections of Ethiopia as revealed by Microsatellite Markers

Melkamu Genet¹*

¹Department of Plant Biotechnology, Jimma University, Jimma, Ethiopia,

^*Corresponding author e-mail: melkamugenet3@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is the only grain and stalk crop that can be used for multipurpose. The assessment of genetic diversity and population structure is relevant to exploiting the genetic potential of the crop. This study was aimed to assess the genetic diversity and population structure of selected 82 Ethiopian sweet sorghum accessions using 10 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers that represent seven geographic regions of Ethiopia. The study revealed a total of 116 alleles with a mean of 11.6 alleles per locus. All used microsatellite loci were highly polymorphic with polymorphic information content (PIC) ranging from 0.75 to 0.90 with an average of 0.82. They showed high gene diversity ranging from 0.59 to 0.81 with an overall mean of 0.70. There was a moderate genetic differentiation (FST=0.21) showing the presence of high gene flow (Nm= 5.033) where 91% of the total variation was accounted for within populations genetic. The clustering, principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and population structure did not cluster the studied populations into a separate group according to their geographical origin. In conclusion, the highest intra-population diversity was observed among populations of North Wollo (He= 0.81) and South Wollo (He= 0.79), and hence these areas can be considered as hot spots for the identification of novel traits. Therefore, the present study has generated baseline information for breeders to improve Ethiopian sweet sorghum through breeding, management, and conservation of the available genetic resource.