Genetic diversity analysis in (Vatke) Agnew populations collected from diverse geographic regions in Ethiopia using inter-simple sequence repeats (ISSRs) DNA marker system.

Background: (Vatke) Agnew (Lamiaceae), locally known as Ethiopian potato Ethiopian dinich, is one of the native Ethiopian edible tuber crops that has been significantly contributing to household food security for millions of subsistence farmers. However, its current production is declining to the extent of total extinction from several administrative regions where it used to be widely cultivated. It is one of the less researched crops regardless of being indigenous and its contribution to food security during time of scarcity. Therefore, we intended to assess the level of genetic diversity in 67 accessions, representing nine populations that were collected from diverse agro-ecologies in the country, using ISSR markers and hence, to generate a baseline information that assists marker assisted breeding, conservation and germplasm management efforts.

Results: In the present study, ten polymorphic ISSR markers were screened and optimized, that generated an average of 7.4 scorable bands per marker and revealed high overall percent polymorphism (95%), Nei's gene diversity (h = 0.40) and Shannon index (I = 0.62) suggesting ISSR's effectiveness in detecting high levels of genetic diversity. A considerably high overall populations gene diversity (Nei's) (h = 0.32) and Shannon index (I = 0.47) were observed, revealing high potential of the populations for further breeding and conservation efforts particularly for population from Gurage administrative zone, which showed the highest values. Similarly, estimation of pairwise genetic distance revealed the importance of cross breeding population from Awi administrative zone to the rest populations. Analysis of hierarchical molecular variance (AMOVA) showed higher levels of genetic differentiation within populations (92%), and collection regions (94%) suggesting that either clonal mode of propagation in the crop or farmers selection pressure for important agronomic traits or both maintained the original heterozygosity in the crop. UPGMA phylogenetic analysis did not strictly group the populations based on their geographic region of origin, which could be attributed to the widely practiced tuber exchange and hence continuous human mediated exchange of genetic material and sharing of the same genetic base among the geographic regions.

Conclusions: The ISSR markers used in the present study were effective in revealing extent and patterns of genetic diversity in populations. However, it is important to couple them with agro-morphological traits or codominant molecular markers to get more reliable information for use in breeding and conservation. Several of the potential administrative zones we covered are useful for diversification and conservation. However, the crop is currently highly marginalized and this led to rapid decline in population size and loss of valuable agronomic traits. To address this challenge, there is an urgent need to take counteractive measures.