Ethnobotanical Study of Edible Oil Crops As A Companion of Sorghum Bicolor L. Moench and Biochemical Genetic Analysis Of In Situ and Ex Situ Conserved Guizotia Abyssinica (L.F.) Cass.Gern:Plasn: Fron: North Shewa and South Welo
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Date
2001-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
South Welo alld 1I0rth Shew{1 are the cellter for the diversity of Sorghum bicolor. S.orghum is
cultivated ill close association with oil crops maillly because of their com billed uses ill the
cultural feeding system of local people. The presence of multipwpose sorghum lalldraces in
the area have played a significant role for oil crop species diversity and their ill situ
conservation, as each oil crop has its own unique domain in its combined use with sorghum.
The companionship of sorghum and oil crops is multidimensional, which includes multiple
cropping practices at the field level, multi-component food values. Their companionship is
deep rooted to the level of society's traditional beliefs alld sacrifices and cultural life.
Guizotia abyssinica alld Sesamum indicum are the most important oil crops of the area with
strongest companionship with sorghum both at the field level and home level. The stronger
the companionship of a given oil crop with sorghum at home level, the stronger the
companionship at field level too. This result is based lipan (i) the interviews with local
farmers (both males and females) with heterogeneous age groups, and (ii) field survey
together with local farmers and the in situ team in order to collect data on the cropping
pat/ems and degree of companionship of sorghum and edible oil crops. Different
AgromOlphological traits ji-om si?, oil crops were analyzed for the plllpose of obtaining the
level of variability among populations of each oil crop and correlation between traits.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation analysis were conducted for quantitative
traits, while Shannon's diversity index analysis was conducted for qualitative traits, to see the
potential genetic diversity of these oil crops. Capsule length, number of capsules per plant
and number of seeds per capsule are important for high yield in Sesamum indiculII. Number
of branches per plant and number of heads per plant are the main traits that determine yield
in Guizotia abyssinica. In Carthamus tinctorius, number of capitulum per plant, which is a
primal'), trait to determine yield, did not show significant correia lion with other traits studied.
In Brassica carinata, number oj primm)' branches per plant, plant height and nlllnber of
seeds per capsule show significant positive correlation between themselves implying that
these traits might be important agronomic traits for high yield. Shannon diversity estimates
revealed that more than 74% oj the total variation is due to within populations or area, for all
species analyzed. Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE) was used to assess genetic variability in twenty in
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situ conserved populations and twenty ex situ conserved populations of Guizotia abyssinca.
MLEE analysis at four enzyme loci scores 19 alleles. All 19 alleles were recorded in both in
situ and ex situ populations. Dendrograms constructed based on Nei's genetic distance values
show that there is no clear differentiation between the two groups. All four loci were
polymO/phic and characterized by significant heterozygote deficiency (P<O.OOl) and
significant deviation Ji'om Hardy-weinberg equilibriulll (P<O.OO I). Mean Shanllon's diversity
index between the two groups is too small which explained only 0.8% of the total variation.
Both group show almost the same level of diversity as revealed by both F-statistics and
Shannon's diversity index. Marked differentiation between populations (Fst= 0.313 and
0.237, for in situ and ex situ populations, respectively) was observed. Averaged overall
populations there was a mean number of alleles per locus (A) of 2.125 and 2.265, a mean
percellIage polymO/phic loci (P) of 72.50 alld 76.25, and a mean observed heterozygosity
(Ho) of 0.249 and 0.265 for in situ and ex situ conserved populations, respectively, which
suggest a rather higher level of genetic diversity in ex situ populations than that of in situ
populations. The values of these variables, deferred considerably between populations, which
might be because of small sample size used and few number of loci studied. Although there
are some biases introduced due to small sample size used and few number of loci studied, the
parameters calculated have shown large level of genetic variability, which is the result of
hundreds of generations of cOlltinuOIiS in sitll conservation that have been reshaped by
farmers'selection criteria.
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Biology