This study assessed the genetic diversity of African yam bean (AYB) accessions using morphological and molecular markers. The accessions were grown, and morphological data collected were subjected to analysis of variance and multivariate analyses. Genomic DNA extracted from the accessions were amplified with inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers. The diversity analysis was conducted using MEGA4 software. The accessions varied significantly (P < 0.05) in growth, flowering and seed-related parameters. Flowering commenced early in most accessions. Weight of 100-seed range from 15.01 to 21.15 g with the mean value of 18.30 g. Significant correlations existed between stem height, the number of leaves and leaf dimensions. Also, days to flowering correlated with pod formation; likewise, seed dimension had a positive association with seed weight. The principal biplot revealed that two components accounted for 41.77% of the observed variation. Analysis of the electropherogram showed 95 loci comprising 1351 alleles were detected by the ISSR markers with 65.26% polymorphism and combined polymorphic information content of 0.85. The principal coordinate analysis placed accessions together on a plane based on their spatial relationship. The dendrogram showed accession pairs (TSs-77, TSs-95) and (TSs-111, TSs-84) are closely related. The phylogram identified three kinships with a total length of 454. Accession TSs-115 is likely the progenitor while TSs-82 and TSs-86 are the most recent. The study concluded that a combination of morphological and ISSR markers is effective for the diversity study of AYB and the existing, genetic diversity in the accessions could be harnessed for its improvement, conservation and utilization.

中文翻译：

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非洲山药的形态农艺性状变异性、等位基因多态性和多样性分析：提高利用和种质保护

本研究使用形态和分子标记评估了非洲山药豆 (AYB) 种质的遗传多样性。种质生长，收集的形态学数据进行方差分析和多变量分析。从种质中提取的基因组 DNA 用简单序列重复 (ISSR) 标记进行扩增。使用MEGA4软件进行多样性分析。种质差异很大（磷< 0.05) 生长、开花和种子相关参数。在大多数种质中开花很早就开始了。百粒重15.01～21.15 g，平均值18.30 g。茎高、叶片数和叶片尺寸之间存在显着相关性。此外，开花天数与豆荚形成相关；同样，种子尺寸与种子重量呈正相关。主要双标图显示，两个分量占观察到的变异的 41.77%。电泳图谱分析显示，ISSR标记共检测到95个位点，1351个等位基因，多态性为65.26%，综合多态信息含量为0.85。主坐标分析根据空间关系将种质放在一个平面上。树状图显示了登录对（TSs-77，TSs-95) 和 (TSs-111, TSs-84) 密切相关。系统谱确定了三个亲属关系，总长度为 454。加入 TSs-115 可能是祖先，而 TSs-82 和 TSs-86 是最近的。该研究得出结论，形态学和ISSR标记的组合对于AYB的多样性研究是有效的，并且可以利用种质中现有的遗传多样性来对其进行改进、保护和利用。