Phenotypic diversity of enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) landraces used in traditional medicine

Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) is a multipurpose food security crop extensively cultivated in southern and southwestern parts of Ethiopia. In addition to its wide consumption as a source of food and feed, some enset landraces are also used as a traditional medicine in some parts of the country. However, the latter are becoming vulnerable to various human-related activities and environmental constraints. The main objective of this study was, therefore, to investigate the diversity that exist in enset landraces used for traditional medicine. A field study was conducted in four Administrative Zones and one special District in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region in Ethiopia. A total of 14 qualitative traits were employed to investigate the diversity in 40 landraces through field observation, color charts and focus group discussion. The data were analyzed using SAS and MINITAB softwares. Principal component analysis showed that the first four principal components accounted for 77% of the total variations and classified the landraces into four distinct groups. Similarly, cluster analysis grouped the landraces into four major clusters each containing 4–15 landraces. In general, the 14 phenotypic traits used in this study are important in discriminating the landraces indicating the existence of high genetic diversity among the landraces which needs to be conserved for the future

The Genetic Diversity of Enset (Ensete ventricosum) Landraces Used in Traditional Medicine Is Similar to the Diversity Found in Non-medicinal Landraces

Enset (Ensete ventricosum) is a multipurpose crop extensively cultivated in southern and southwestern Ethiopia for human food, animal feed, and fiber. It has immense contributions to the food security and rural livelihoods of 20 million people. Several distinct enset landraces are cultivated for their uses in traditional medicine. These landraces are vulnerable to various human-related activities and environmental constraints. The genetic diversity among the landraces is not verified to plan conservation strategy. Moreover, it is currently unknown whether medicinal landraces are genetically differentiated from other landraces. Here, we characterize the genetic diversity of medicinal enset landraces to support effective conservation and utilization of their diversity. We evaluated the genetic diversity of 51 enset landraces, of which 38 have reported medicinal value. A total of 38 alleles across the 15 simple sequence repeat (SSR) loci and a moderate level of genetic diversity (He = 0.47) were detected. Analysis of molecular variation (AMOVA) revealed that only 2.4% of the total genetic variation was contributed by variation among the medicinal and non-medicinal groups of landraces, with an FST of 0.024. A neighbor-joining tree showed four separate clusters with no correlation to the use-values of the landraces. Except for two, all "medicinal" landraces with distinct vernacular names were found to be genetically different, showing that vernacular names are a good indicator of genetic distinctiveness in these specific groups of landraces. The discriminant analysis of the principal components also confirmed the absence of distinct clustering between the two groups. We found that enset landraces were clustered irrespective of their use-value, showing no evidence for genetic differentiation between the enset grown for 'medicinal' uses and non-medicinal landraces. This suggests that enset medicinal properties may be restricted to a more limited number of genotypes, might have resulted from the interaction of genotype with the environment or management practice, or partly misreported. The study provides baseline information that promotes further investigations in exploiting the medicinal value of these specific landraces

The landscape of microsatellites in the enset (Ensete ventricosum) genome and web-based marker resource development

Ensete ventricosum (Musaceae, enset) is an Ethiopian food security crop. To realize the potential of enset for rural livelihoods, further knowledge of enset diversity, genetics and genomics is required to support breeding programs and conservation. This study was conducted to explore the enset genome to develop molecular markers, genomics resources, and characterize enset landraces while giving insight into the organization of the genome. We identified 233 microsatellites (simple sequence repeats, SSRs) per Mbp in the enset genome, representing 0.28% of the genome. Mono- and di-nucleotide repeats motifs were found in a higher proportion than other classes of SSR-motifs. In total, 154,586 non-redundant enset microsatellite markers (EMM) were identified and 40 selected for primer development. Marker validation by PCR and low-cost agarose gel electrophoresis revealed that 92.5% were polymorphic, showing a high PIC (Polymorphism Information Content; 0.87) and expected heterozygosity (He = 0.79–0.82). In silico analysis of genomes of closely related species showed 46.86% of the markers were transferable among enset species and 1.90% were transferable to Musa. The SSRs are robust (with basic PCR methods and agarose gel electrophoresis), informative, and applicable in measuring enset diversity, genotyping, selection and potentially breeding. Enset SSRs are available in a web-based database at https://enset-project.org/[email protected] (or https://enset.aau.edu.et/index.html, downloadable from Figshare)