Abstract
Cassava is crucial for food security of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. The crop has great potential to contribute to African development and is increasing its income-earning potential for small-scale farmers and related value chains on the continent. Therefore, it is critical to increase cassava production, as well as its quality attributes. Technological innovations offer great potential to drive this envisioned change. This paper highlights genomic tools and resources available in cassava. The paper also provides a glimpse of how these resources have been used to screen and understand the pattern of cassava genetic diversity on the continent. Here, we reviewed the approaches currently used for phenotyping cassava traits, highlighting the methodologies used to link genotypic and phenotypic information, dissect the genetics architecture of key cassava traits, and identify quantitative trait loci/markers significantly associated with those traits. Additionally, we examined how knowledge acquired is utilized to contribute to crop improvement. We explored major approaches applied in the field of molecular breeding for cassava, their promises, and limitations. We also examined the role of national agricultural research systems as key partners for sustainable cassava production.
Highlights
The agricultural sector is key to economic growth in Africa
The study of Masumba et al (2017) revealed several QTLs on all chromosomes linked with cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) foliar symptoms, the most interesting of which was found on chromosome 2 and explained 4.6% of the phenotypic variance (PVE)
The development of advanced high throughput and accurate cassava phenotyping approaches is imperative. Translating those results obtained into practical breeding methodologies and coherent biological knowledge is needed
Summary
The agricultural sector is key to economic growth in Africa. The recent report on the Global Hunger Index indicates that over half of the world’s food-insecure people live in Africa (FSIN, 2019). The development of low cost genotyping technologies based on multiplex sequencing platforms, such as genotyping by sequencing, has enabled rapid and accurate high-density fingerprinting using SNP markers (Elshire et al, 2011; ICGMC, 2015; Rabbi et al, 2015; Kamanda et al, 2020)5) These resources provide valuable tools that have contributed to genetic research and molecular breeding of cassava. Several approaches have been used to phenotype breeding lines and germplasm collections for nutrition (carotenoids, cyanogenic potential), yield and yield components (dry matter content), quality (starch physiochemical and functional properties, texture, and pasting properties), biotic stresses (disease resistance), and root system architecture. The study of Masumba et al (2017) revealed several QTLs on all chromosomes linked with CBSD foliar symptoms, the most interesting of which was found on chromosome 2 and explained 4.6% of the PVE. Garcia-Oliveira et al (2020) identified one major QTL on chromosome 18 that explained 12.87% of the phenotypic
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