Genetic Diversity of Tef [Eragrostis tef (Zucc.)Trotter] as Revealed by Microsatellite Markers

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.