Biochemical Characterisation of 18 Accessions of Sweet Potato (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam.) using Total Leaf and Tuberous Root Protein by SDS-PAGE

DNA-based markers,undeniably, provide potent tools for studying genetic relationships in plants; however, potential of protein-based markers using SDS-PAGE is quite promising, particularly in developing countries. Plant storage proteins serve as molecular reserves imperative for plant growth and maintenance and thus have proven to be essential for the survival of plant species. Storage proteins are also indispensable in plant defense mechanisms as insecticidal and anti-microbial proteins. They have also been widely employed as biochemical markers for genetic diversity studies. Eighteen sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L. Lam) accessions with local or exotic origin were evaluated for genetic diversity using leaf and tuberous root protein via sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). Marked variations observed in the electrophoregrams of total leaf and tuberous root proteins gave an indication of intense variability among the accessions. Molecular size of proteins ranged from 20.23 to 28.89 kDa and 22.44 to 97.19 kDa, in the total leaf and tuberous root proteins, respectively. Two pairs of accessions SA/BNARI and UE 007 as well as HMA 1 and US 029 were identified as duplicates based on their banding patterns. Keywords: Biochemical, characterisation, SDS-PAGE, sweet potato, leaf& tuberous root protei

Agromorphological Characterisation of 29 Accessions of Okra (Abelmoschus spp L.)

The West African sub-region is indisputably the region of greatest diversity of Okra (Abelmoschus spp L.) germplasm as it currently hosts some 1,769 accessions of Okra (representing 77.49%) out of the 2, 283 reported world-wide. These are largely uncharacterised, making it practically impossible to ascribe specific attributes to known accessions to facilitate breeding for further improvement to meet specific demands by end-users or industrial-scale production. Twenty six (26) local accessions and three (3) exotic lines of Okra were collected from eight geographic regions of Ghana. Their agro-morphological traits were evaluated under field conditions on the research farm of the Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute. Hierarchical cluster analysis of results grouped the accessions into two major clusters and subsequently into five sub-clusters based on the qualitative characters studied. The pattern of clustering did not indicate any relationship with geographic origin of collection. The two most divergent accessions were Cs-Legon (local accession) and Clemson spineless (exotic line). There were no duplicates among the accessions which exhibited great variability with respect to all vegetative as well as reproductive characters, except one. Keywords: Okra; accession; characterisation; phenotypic variation; cluster analysis; genetic similarity index