Abstract
Fonio is an ancient orphan cereal, cultivated by resource-poor farmers in arid and semi-arid regions of West Africa, who conserved and used the cereal for nutrition and income generation. However, the extent and patterns of phenotypic variation within the fonio germplasm remain scarcely evaluated to inform breeding decisions. In this study, we used alpha lattice design to assess the phenotypic variability of 180 fonio accessions using 20 agro morphological descriptors, including both qualitative and quantitative traits at Bengou research station in 2018 and 2019. Descriptive statistics, combined analysis and multivariate analyses, including principal components analysis (PCA), hierarchical clustering, and multiple factor analysis (MFA) were performed. As results, we found significant differences among fonio accessions and among agro ecological zones of provenance for most of the quantitative traits. Furthermore, highly significant positive correlations were found between grain yield and other yield-related attributes such as harvest index and thousand seeds weight, whereas significant negative correlations were found between grain yield and flowering and maturity times. Clusters analysis revealed three phenotypic groups. Group 1 was characterized by early maturing fonio accessions with higher grain yield. Groups 2 and 3 were characterized by late maturing accessions with intermediate to moderate grain yield. The accessions from Group 1 are candidate for yield improvement and development of fonio lines with enhanced lodging resistance. Accessions from Group 2 and 3 can be improved for yield through marker-assisted selection of best thousand seed weight. This study highlights how traits are correlated within the major phenotypic groups of fonio in West Africa, and we discussed how these groups could be further exploited for improving traits of economic importance. Furthermore, this study exhibited agro morphological descriptors that discriminate fonio accessions and provide useful information for parental selection with economically important agronomic traits.
Highlights
Fonio (Digitaria exilis (Kippist) Stapf), referred to as white fonio or fonio millet, is one of the oldest cereal crops domesticated by farmers in West Africa
Panicle exertion is important in cereal research though this was rarely documented in fonio for which a persistent interest for higher yielding cultivars is nowadays expected
Panicle exertion was reported as a crucial morphological marker that could be used for identification of hybrid plants derived from crosses between cultivated rice and African wild rice
Summary
Fonio (Digitaria exilis (Kippist) Stapf), referred to as white fonio or fonio millet, is one of the oldest cereal crops domesticated by farmers in West Africa. Fonio plays a critical role for food and nutrition security for several millions of people in this region, especially during shortage period due to short time life cycle [2]. Its grain is nutritiously valuable due to the presence of two human-vital amino acids methionine and cysteine, which are absent in other staple food cereals such as wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), rice Some antithyroid properties have been reported due to high flavonoid content in the crude fonio grain [4]. The grains are poor in gluten and beneficial for people suffering from coeliac disease and overweight people, pregnant and breast feeding women, as well as diabetic people [5]. An efficient formulation of fonio flour enriched with local food resources for the complementary feeding of children under age two has been reported [6]. Due to its C4 metabolism, the crop resists to drought and is well adapted to local pedo-climatic conditions [7]
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