ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC (VIA PROTEIN ELECTROPHORESIS) AND NUTRITIONAL VARIABILITIES AMONG TEN ACCESSIONS OF SPHENOSTYLIS STENOCARPA (HOCHT. EX. A. RICH) HARMS, A RESEARCH PROJECT TOPIC ON PLANT SCIENCE
ABSTRACT
The genetic variability among ten (10) accessions of Sphenostylis stenocarpa from three states and National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology Moor Plantation, Ibadan, Nigeria were assessed using sodium dodecyl polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS – PAGE). There were variations in the banding patterns of the accessions and polymorphism was also observed. Twelve polypeptide bands were obtained ranging from 9KDA to 219KDa. The Unweighted Pair Group Method with Mean Algorithm (UPGMA) dendrogram grouped the ten accessions into two clusters and six groups. Some accessions appeared in the same group, while others were observed to be in different groups. The proximate and nutritional analysis also detected variations. A strong and positive correlation was observed among some of the attributes studied. The principal component analysis also showed some variation among the accessions. The highest variability was observed in the ash content which shows that ash content could be a major indicator for nutritional variability in these 10 accessions followed by the Vitamin B2 in the second component.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
African Yam Bean (AYB) (Sphenostylis stenocarpa Ex. A. Rich, Harms) is an underutilized food leguminous crop of the family Fabaceae, sub family Papilionoideae (Azeke et al., 2005; Moyib et al., 2008). The domestication, cultivation and distribution of the crop are very evident in the tropics and Africa where it had been reported to exhibit very high diversity (Okpara et al., 1997). The distribution of the crop according to Genetic Resources Information Network (GRIN), (2009), includes the following countries within the tropical regions of Africa: Chad and Ethiopia (Northeast tropical Africa); Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (East tropical Africa); Burundi, Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo (Central tropical Africa); Cote d’voire, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Togo (West tropical Africa) etc.
