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Genetic Nature of Yams (Dioscorea sp.) Domesticated by Farmers in Benin (West Africa)

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Abstract

‘Domestication’ is a traditional farmers’ practice reported for yams (Dioscorea sp.) in Benin (West Africa). It involves introducing ‘spontaneous’ (naturally occurring) yams, supposedly wild (D. abyssinica and D. praehensilis), in varieties of the D. cayenensis–D. rotundata cultivated species complex. In this study, we established the genetic nature of ‘predomesticated’ yam plants using the amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) technique. A total of 213 accessions, consisting of 32 predomesticated yams, 70 D. cayenensis–D. rotundata, 86 D. abyssinica and 25 D. praehensilis yams were analysed. Using 91 AFLP markers, three groups of accessions were distinguished, broadly corresponding to the above botanical species. Of the 32 predomesticated accessions, 16% were clustered with D. praehensilis, 37% with D. abyssinica and the remaining 47% with D. cayenensis–D. rotundata. These results demonstrated the use of wild plants by farmers in their domestication process, and suggested that plants derived from intervarietal and interspecific hybridisation may also be subject to this process. This study has shown that through domestication farmers influence and increase the genetic diversity in yam by using sexual reproduction of wild and possibly cultivated yams.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Equipe DYNADIV, UMR 1097 Diversité et Génomes des Plantes Cultivées, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), BP 64501, 34394, Montpellier cedex 5, France

    Nora Scarcelli, Serge Tostain, Cédric Mariac, Julien Berthaud & Jean-Louis Pham

  2. Laboratoire de Génétique, FAST-Université d’Abomey-Calavi, BP 526, Cotonou, Bénin

    Clément Agbangla & Ogoubi Da

Authors
  1. Nora Scarcelli
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  2. Serge Tostain
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  3. Cédric Mariac
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  4. Clément Agbangla
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  5. Ogoubi Da
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  6. Julien Berthaud
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  7. Jean-Louis Pham
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Correspondence to Nora Scarcelli.

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Scarcelli, N., Tostain, S., Mariac, C. et al. Genetic Nature of Yams (Dioscorea sp.) Domesticated by Farmers in Benin (West Africa). Genet Resour Crop Evol 53, 121–130 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-004-1950-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-004-1950-5

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