Abstract
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp) is an important component of most traditional cropping systems in the tropics. It provides leafy vegetables and/or grains and forages and acts as a cover crop. We characterized 16 cowpea accession collections in Ghana using agromorphological traits and high-density silicoDArT markers for breeding and efficient conservational purposes. Principal component analysis indicated pod, leaf, and seed characters such as pod length, seeds per pod, terminal leaves shape, number of leaves, hundred seed weight, and seed weight per plant as discriminatory traits in revealing the variation among the accessions. Trait association analysis revealed a significant correlation between the pod number, pod length, seeds per pod, number of leaves, and seed weight per plant that could allow the selection to improve the grain yield. Moderate to high broad-sense heritability and genetic advance observed for most of the traits indicate that the selection would result in foreseeable genetic improvement. The 9,706 silicoDArT markers used in the study were able to reveal genetic variation among the tested cowpea collections. Accessions GH5039 and GH6056 were established as duplicates based on the silicoDArT markers, which could enhance efficient germplasm utilization and conservation. Accessions GH3685, GH3674, and GH4541 were identified for high leaf and pod production and high seed yield per plant, which could be good candidates for dual purpose cowpea production, which is common in the subsistence farming system.
Highlights
Cowpea is an economically important indigenous African legume crop and a major source of plant proteins, vitamins [1, 2], animal fodder [3], and is of considerable importance in human nutrition in the semiarid and tropical regions of Africa [4]
Based on the terminal leaf shape, genotypes were assorted into hastate (GH5039 and GH6056), subhastate (GH3710), and the rest had subglobose terminal leaf shape. e colour of the terminal leaves ranged from pale green to dark green. e latter was predominant (>50%)
Accessions GH3685 and GH3701 with long pods had pendant pod attachment to peduncle. e ideal one would, be pendant pods attached to long peduncles. e brown or straw dry pod colour was prevalent within the accessions. e colour of the pod could have been highly considered during the early domestication and selection process as genotypes with dark or black pods have been observed to shatter upon maturity [35]
Summary
Cowpea is an economically important indigenous African legume crop and a major source of plant proteins, vitamins [1, 2], animal fodder [3], and is of considerable importance in human nutrition in the semiarid and tropical regions of Africa [4]. Cowpea is well adapted to the semiarid regions of the tropics where other food legumes do not perform well due to its ability to tolerate drought and high temperature. It performs well even in poor soils and has the unique ability to fix atmospheric nitrogen [5]. Knowledge about the diversity or variation in a given germplasm forms the basis for breeding, efficient management, and conservation Prebreeding activities, such as characterization and evaluation, enhance genetic resource conservation and promote the identification of favorable alleles of genes related to important agronomic traits in the germplasm for subsequent incorporation into crop improvement programmes [9]
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