DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2019.v07i11.006

Pages: 416-423

White fonio (Digitaria exilis Stapf), a neglected crop in West African countries, is considered as a strategic source for nutrition and food security and a potential source to generate significant financial returns for farmers. Fonio has agronomic potentialities and adaptation to drought conditions that make it deserve special attention as well as its wild relatives which have interesting genetic traits for its improvement. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between white fonio and its wild relatives based on agro-morphological traits and SSR markers. A total of 25 accessions belonging to 10 species and provided from the Herbaria of DAKAR and IFAN and from our collections were analyzed. Morphological and SSR similarity between species was calculated and the correlation between morphological and genetic variation was analyzed by the Mantel test. The results showed three main classes for each method used and a closely relationship between D. exilis and D. longiflora phenotypically and genetically compared to other studied Digitaria species. Mantel test revealed positive correlation between the two marker systems (r = 0.39, p = 0.013). Therefore, the techniques of molecular biology, such as the use of SSR markers, are effective tools to better understand genetic diversity within te genus Digitaria.