Extent and pattern of genetic diversity in Ethiopian white lupin landraces for agronomical and phenological traits

Abstract

White lupin (Lupinus albus) is one of four economically important species of the Lupinus genus, and has been traditionally cultivated for thousands of years along the Nile valley, including in Ethiopia. An experiment comprising of 143 Ethiopian White lupin landraces and one genotype from Germany, was undertaken at Merawi in Ethiopia. The objective of the study was to cluster the Ethiopian white lupin accessions into similarity groups and assess the extent and pattern of diversity of the accessions. Data on 10 quantitative agronomic traits were recorded. Landraces significantly differed in most of the traits studied, and a significant number of local accessions performed as high as 5 metric tonnes per hectare of grain yield. Cluster analysis showed that landraces were grouped into seventeen clusters of different sizes, of which five were singletons. Some landraces were grouped together regardless of their geographic origin. On the other hand, landraces from Awi, South Gondar and West Gojam in Ethiopia were distributed over many clusters. Hence, the result did not support a definite relationship between geographic diversity and genetic diversity. Genetic distances between many pairs of clusters were significant, justifying crosses between parents from them to be desirable genetic recombinations and, hence, transgressive segregants.

Keywords: Ethiopia, landrace populations, Lupinus albus