Quality Analysis And Molecular Diversity Of Cassava (Manihot Esculenta Crantz) Germplasm In Kenya

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ABSTRACT

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Cranzt) is an important food security crop for resource poor rural communities particularly in Africa. Little is however known about variability of critical root nutritional, biochemical quality traits and molecular diversity of Kenyan cassava germplasm. This led to a study whose objective was to determine the nutritional quality traits of different genotypes of cassava cultivated in the central Rift Valley region of Kenya and to identify genetic constitution of cassava accessions from different regions of Kenya using molecular tools. Roots from fourteen accessions comprising Kenyan local landraces and improved clones were screened for their nutritional traits including the contents of cyanogenic glycosides, protein and the micro nutrients iron and zinc while another 69 accessions were tested for molecular diversity using Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs). Trait stability and the effects of the environment on the expression of the nutritional traits were evaluated using various genotype (G) x environment (E) interaction study models. There were significant (p

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