Author(s): Birhanu Mengistu, Wosene Gebrselassie and Tesfaye Disasa
Noug is an underutilized oilseed crop mainly cultivated in Ethiopia and India. Genetic diversity analyses among 100 noug genotypes were carried out using 14 simple sequence repeat markers to assess the diversity status among the genotypes. Analysis of molecular variance revealed that 70% of the total variation was observed among individuals within populations. The inbreeding coefficient within subpopulations value among the studied noug populations was recorded 0.04. The total number of alleles amplified was 135 with an average 9.6 alleles per locus, suggesting that simple sequence repeats are a powerful technique for assessment of genetic diversity. The mean value of major allele frequency and number of effective alleles was 0.31 and 3.33 respectively. Polymorphic information content ranged from 0.62 to 0.86 with a mean value of 0.78. The highest value was observed at the locus GA077. Similarly, the allelic diversity was very high with the mean value of observed and expected heterozygosity 0.02 and 0.63 respectively. The mean value of Shannon’s information index and gene flow was 1.22 and 1.05 respectively. Accessions collected from Gojam showed the highest numbers of private alleles (1.14). The study identified Gonder, Shewa and Gojam as hot spot regions for genetic diversity of noug. Therefore, attention should be given to these areas in any noug improvement and conservation programs.
