Genetic diversity assessment of thirty nine Coffea canephora accessions using EST-SSR markers

Studies on genetic diversity prove knowledge on genetic variation that can be useful to improve on food security. Variations were found among the thirty-nine robusta coffee accessions with the use of expressed sequence tag (EST)-simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The EST-SSR markers used in this study identified a total number of ۱۵ alleles with an average of ۳.۰ alleles per locus. Primer CESR۰۲, had the highest polymorphic information content value was of ۰.۵۹, the highest genetic diversity value (۰.۶۶) and the highest number of alleles (۴). The highest percentage polymorphism of ۴۲.۸۶ was detected in primers CESR۰۴ and CESR۰۵. The phylogenetic dendrogram grouped the accessions into main three groups and six subgroups. The most genetic distinct accessions were accession: ۳, ۲۶ and ۳۰. The most genetically related accessions accounted for ۴۳.۵۹% and the most distinct accession recorded ۲.۵۶%. For the Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA), the least genetic similar accessions accounted for ۲۰.۵۱%, while ۲۸.۲۱% of the accessions were genetically similar, representing the highest grouping. The results of this study clearly demonstrated that EST-SSR markers could be utilized to identify and categorize coffee accessions proper understand the genetic diversity among robusta coffee accessions for further improvement and preservation.