Genetic variability is the fundamental prerequisite of any crop-breeding program to develop superior cultivars. There are about 350 Eragrostis1 species, of which, tef is the only species cultivated for human consumption. Currently, the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) collected over five thousand tef accessions from different geographical regions, diverse in terms of climate and elevation, which are uncharacterized yet. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity among 64 tef accessions using 10 selected polymorphic simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers. A total of 314 alleles were detected with an average of 14.5 alleles per locus and amplicon size ranged from 90 bp–320 bp. The mean value of polymorphic information content (PIC) was 0.87, appearing polymorphic for all loci. The lowest Fst value (0.05) was recorded among the studied tef populations. The mean value of major allele frequency and the number of effective alleles were 0.33 and 3.32, respectively. The mean value of gene flow (Nm) and Shannon’s information index (I) was 4.74 and 1.65, respectively. The observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosities varied from 0.34 to 0.56 and from 0.58 to 0.76, respectively. The cluster analysis has grouped the 64 tef accessions into three distinct clusters based on their similarity. The PCoA analysis showed that clustering is basing on the geographical origin of accessions. Analysis of molecular variance revealed 56%, 39% and 5% of the total variation due to variation within populations, among individuals and among populations, respectively. Structure bar-plot also inferred three gene pools, but with high level of admixtures. Thus, the present study shows that the identified tef accessions could be of great interest for the initiation of a planned breeding and conservation programs.

中文翻译：

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微卫星标记揭示 Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.)Trotter] 的遗传多样性


遗传变异是任何作物育种计划开发优良品种的基本先决条件。画眉草1 约有 350 种，其中，tef 是唯一栽培供人类食用的物种。目前，埃塞俄比亚生物多样性研究所（EBI）收集了来自不同地理区域的 5000 多个 tef 种质，这些区域的气候和海拔各不相同，但尚未对其进行特征描述。本研究的目的是使用 10 个选定的多态性简单序列重复 (SSR) 标记来评估 64 个 tef 种质之间的遗传多样性。总共检测到 314 个等位基因，每个位点平均有 14.5 个等位基因，扩增子大小范围为 90 bp-320 bp。多态信息含量(PIC)平均值为0.87，所有位点均呈现多态性。在所研究的 tef 群体中记录了最低的 Fst 值 (0.05)。主要等位基因频率和有效等位基因数的平均值分别为0.33和3.32。基因流（Nm）和香农信息指数（I）的平均值分别为4.74和1.65。观察到的 (Ho) 杂合度和预期 (He) 杂合度分别为 0.34 至 0.56 和 0.58 至 0.76。聚类分析根据 64 个 tef 种质的相似性将其分为三个不同的聚类。 PCoA 分析表明聚类是基于种质的地理来源。分子变异分析显示，总变异的 56%、39% 和 5% 分别是由于群体内、个体之间和群体之间的变异造成的。结构条形图还推断出三个基因库，但混合水平较高。 因此，本研究表明，已确定的 tef 种质对于启动有计划的育种和保护计划可能具有重大意义。