Publications by authors named "Nduwumuremyi Athanase"
Matching crop varieties to their target use context and user preferences is a challenge faced by many plant breeding programs serving smallholder agriculture. Numerous participatory approaches proposed by CGIAR and other research teams over the last four decades have attempted to capture farmers' priorities/preferences and crop variety field performance in representative growing environments through experimental trials with higher external validity. Yet none have overcome the challenges of scalability, data validity and reliability, and difficulties in capturing socio-economic and environmental heterogeneity.
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- Cassava Brown Streak Disease (CBSD), caused by CBSV and UCBSV, significantly impacted cassava yields in Rwanda during a 2014 epidemic, decreasing production from 3.3 million to 900,000 tonnes.
- A comprehensive high-throughput sequencing survey across 130 cassava fields identified high genome similarity among UCBSV strains, with a maximum nucleotide divergence of only 0.8 percent.
- Further analysis revealed three distinct UCBSV haplotypes geographically clustered, with associations found between specific haplotypes and the cassava cultivars grown in those regions.
The overdependency on local cassava varieties and informal seed sources by farmers in Rwanda has contributed to the spread of cassava viral diseases. The use of improved planting materials made available through formal seed sources, that assure seed quality, is one way to prevent future disease outbreaks. In order to increase the availability of, and farmers access to, such materials there is increasing interest to develop seed business models.
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- The study investigates gene action in cassava to help breeders select better plant varieties, focusing on traits like β-carotene levels.
- The F clones showed significant variations in traits among different families and offspring, with the most promising progenies showing much higher β-carotene content compared to the best parent.
- Results indicated the importance of both additive and non-additive gene actions in controlling traits, with specific combinations of parents demonstrating notable positive heterosis for desirable traits like resistance to diseases and nutritional content.
Background: The early generation selection of cassava quantitative and qualitative traits saves breeding resources as it can shorten breeding schemes. Inheritance analysis provides important breeding information for developing new improved varieties. This study aimed at developing an F1 segregating cassava population and determining mode of gene action of pulp colour and selected traits at early generation selection (F1 seedling and clones).
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