My name is Omar Yacouba Touré from Mali, a. PhD student under the GENES Project. I am currently running the program at University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin Repulic. My research topic is on “Selection of kersting's groundnut (Macrotyloma geocarpum (Harms) Maréchal and Baudet) lines for resistance to disease in West Africa”. My study aims to identify the diseases and pests associated with kersting’s groundnut in Benin and to determine the farmers perception of these diseases and pests, in order to propose control methods. Thus, a survey and prospecting of fields were conducted in three agroecological zones. Numerous samples of leaves showing symptoms of disease were collected and analyzed in the laboratory. Fungi such as Rhizoctonia spp, powdery mildew, cercospora have been identified, while pests we have identified piezotrachelus sp, caterpillars, locusts and thrips. The latter could be responsible for the cases of viruses observed on kersting’s groundnut leaves that remain to be determined. Most farmers do not know that kersting's groundnut is attacked by diseases 94% versus 6%, and do not use any control methods. This is due to the low level of knowledge of farmers. Knowledge of farmers perceptions of diseases and pests and their identification is important in considering appropriate control methods.

My name is Ene chikezie Onuora from Nigeria. I am a GENES Project PhD Scholar studying at Jimma University, Ethiopia. My research is on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum and Solanum pimpinellifolium), and the research topic is: “Genetic Analysis and Joint QTL Linkage Mapping for Selected Traits in Early Interspecific Hybrids and Inbred Backcross Lines (IBLs) of a Solanum pimpinellifolium Accession Using Genotyping by Sequencing”.

Among all species, only S. pimpinellifolium genome possesses more desirable and less undesirable alleles for breeding better tomato cultivars. Effective desirable allele(s) transfer from S. pimpinellifolium to S. lycopersicum calls for identification of genetic markers and loci responsible for these traits under study. By linkage QTL mapping, complex traits loci especially fruit related have been identified by high resolution genetic markers unlike growth, floral traits and fruit number. We choose SNPs over others because among other benefits it could detect polymorphism among closely related cultivars within species or between look-alike species (e.g., S. lycopersicum and S. Pimpinellifolium), its bi-allelic nature and locus or point specificity.

Conventional and PCR-based markers lack this ability. GBS among other approaches have been used in tomato crosses involving different species to discover certain number of SNPs which were used to identify some QTLs. Although wild accessions are potential alternatives for crop improvement, before their use it is important we obtain information on their genetic traits such as: type of gene action, variance and heritability, combinability and heterotic pattern. These indicate the improvement method to be adopted for each specific case conventionally. Why should we choose RILs and IBLs for our linkage QTL mapping over the others? Among other benefits, RIL is a balanced pop. due to equal parental genome representation in the progenies. IBLs, though contains small gene introgression from the wild accession, there is higher occurrence of crossing-over compared to F2 and BC pops. which is believed to increase QTL mapping resolution. IBL provides accurate identification and characterization of QTLs. Most growth and floral traits have been mapped with varying interspecific mapping pops. using low resolution linkage maps and conventional markers. However, these same traits including number of fruits in these pop. raised from S. pimpinellifolium accession are yet to be mapped using the NGS approach, GBS to develop SNPs for easy QTL identification.

My name is Essubalew Getachew Seyum from Jimma University, Ethiopia. I have an MSc Degree in Horticulture from Jimma University, and is currently a PhD student in biotechnology at the University of Yaounde I, Faculty of Sciences and the Department of Plant Biology and Physiology. My research interest is on perennial crop breeding, Genomic selection and Genome-wide association studies. The research topic for my PhD is “Genome properties of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) breeding populations and genomic predictions of hybrid performance”. Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) originated from West Africa, a perennial monocot vegetable oil-producing plant that belongs to the family Arecaceae and the genus Elaeis. It is a multipurpose crop and the cheapest source of vegetable oil available in the world with an average yielding of 10t/ha/year. Oil derived from oil palm is used in both the food and chemical industry. Despite its wide adaptation and importance, oil palm production and productivity are generally far from its potential due to several biotic and abiotic constraints. Climate change, land and labor shortage, limited crop improvement, and diseases are the major factors that hinder yield and oil quality across the world. Oil palm breeding is made difficult because of the perennial nature of the crop that limits the rate of increasing palm oil yield and quality. Notwithstanding, conventional breeding in oil palm is costly and time-consuming, with a long breeding cycle and a limited number of tested individuals. To provide a solution while ensuring a sustainable future, marker-assisted breeding has been introduced into oil palm breeding programs. Genomic selection (GS) is the state-of-the-art method of marker-assisted selection for complex traits. GS has emerged as one of the most promising selection strategies to enhance genetic gain, reduce breeding costs and time of breeding cycle for both animal and plant breeding programs. It is useful when selecting oil palm for better oil yield and yield components and generally it is increasing the rate of genetic gain for oil yield. The current research project will undertake the following two major objectives:(i) To characterize the genomic properties of the oil palm parental populations used for hybrid breeding (mostly La Mé, Deli, and Yangambi) and (ii) To estimate genomic selection accuracy within families of hybrid parents (or within groups of highly related parents). For the first objective, the analysis of data will mainly focus on the genome properties affecting GS accuracy, i.e. allelic frequencies, phases, linkage disequilibrium, Fst, and haplotype sharing with the approximate number of SNPs and parents that will be used. For the second objective, the GS analyses will focus on palm oil yield and its components, using a between-site validation approach. The within-family accuracies will be compared with accuracies obtained at the population level. So far, this research finding depicted that there was a clear genetical divergence between the three oil palm populations. In the same vine, there is also clear variation in genome properties between the three oil palm populations which are highly linked with the density of marker and breeding population used for future genomic selection research in this and other related perennial crops breeding program.

I am MBO NKOULOU Luther Fort, a PhD student at the University of Abomey Calavi in Benin republic. I am from Cameroon and I am currently taking my PhD under GENES Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Project. I was granted for GENES program in 2018 and I started my mobility on exactly December 06, 2018. I am investigating on banana (Musa spp.) a giant herb belonging to Musaceae family and Musa genus because of the great importance of this crop for many producers around the intertropical zones. Bananas (including dessert bananas and plantains) are among the most important food plants in the world, where they are considered as staple foods for about 500 million people in nearly 120 countries, particularly in Africa and in Asia, and thus ensure food security. The plantain group (AAB) plays an important role in many countries in Africa. In Cameroon, cultivated plantains area reaches 277,000 ha for a yield of about 12.45 t/ha. The Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), the main banana production company in Cameroon is also the second-largest employer after the state. My team and I are very excited to focus our research on the potential of genomic selection in banana for black sigatoka disease (BSD) and drought-related traits, with these two threats being the main constraints to banana production. At the end of our mobility, we expect to select banana cultivars resistant to BSD and drought. However, an efficient genomic selection model will contribute to reduce the banana selection cycle.

My name is Jeremiah Sunday Nwogha, I am a Nigerian and PhD student under GENEs Project at Jimma University, Ethiopia. I applied to GENEs Project’s call for PhD scholarship in 2018 and was privileged to be selected. My research focuses on: Metabolomics and transcriptomic profiling of genes implicated in tuber dormancy, in white yam (Dioscorearotundata). Yams (Dioscoreaspp) are of great economic importance in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. It belongs to the monocotyledonous Dioscorea genus in the family Dioscoreaceae of the order Dioscoreales. They are highly heterozygous polyploids, with a basic chromosome number of 10, most cultivars of the species have ploidy levels that range from tetraploids, hexaploids to octoploids (ie, 2n = 4x to 2n = 8x). Global production of yam is estimated at 60 million tons with an income net worth of $12 billion. Dioscorea species are consumed widely in different forms. It has also been widely utilized in pharmaceutical industries as a source of steroidal pre-course. Despite the food security, economic and industrial potentials of the yam crop, it has for long suffered research neglect.The GENEs project has indeed granted me the rare privilege to investigate on the genetic mechanisms involved in yam tuber dormancy. Yam tuber dormancy has constituted a great constraint in yam production and genetic improvement. The dormancy period has made it impossible for yam crop to be grown more than once in a year. Dormancy is an inherent mechanism which allows the affected plant parts to be in the state of low metabolic activities, while maintaining their viability. The problem in the yam tuber dormancy is that the dormant period of the tuber is too lengthy, spanning the period ofabout 270 days after harvest. The inability to manipulate this long period of dormancy either by exogenous application of PGRs or any other agronomic means has restricted the planting activity of farmers and researchers to certain period of the year, thereby fixing yam breeding season at 2-3 years and breeding cycle at minimum of 7 years period.Thus, slowing down the pace of the genetic improvement of yam crop and reduced the crop productivity and production system.

My name is Issa Zakari MahamanMourtala from Niger. I am a PhD student under the GENES Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Project funded by the EU, studying at Ebonyi State University, where I resumed in February 2019. My mandate crop is sweetpotato and my work is centred on “development of drought tolerance farmer and consumer acceptable sweetpotatoes [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam] for West Africa”.Sweetpotato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam] originated from Central America where it was found growing in the wild spreading across the Pacifics from Central America and transported to warmer regions of Asia and Africa by Spanish and Portuguese traders (Allemannt et al., 2010). The crop is called “Ekwoku” in igbo, “dankali” in hausa, “dun odunkun” in Yoruba and “Kudaku” in Zarma. Sweetpotato is a perennial plant cultivated as annual crop (Tairo et al.,2009). It is dicotyledonous belonging to morning glory family Convolvulaceae (Tairo et al.,2009; Lebot, 2010), that isasexually propagated. Worldwide production was 112,835,316 tons, with area of production of 9,202,777 ha, Asia being the largest producer, producing 70.5%, followed by Africa 24.6% (FAOSTAT, 2020). In most sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, it is widely grown in smallholder farmer systems across various agro-ecological zones for food, feed and vegetables and are eaten in different forms. Genetic improvement of sweetpotato is complicated by a number of factors: i) biological constraints of the species that are self and cross incompatible; ii) the highly heterozygous nature of individual clones and iii) the large number of chromosomes (a hexaploid species with 2n = 6x = 90 chromosomes).The main objective of this study is to develop higher yielding drought tolerant sweetpotato varieties that are acceptable by farmers and consumers in West Africa. This is being tackled based on the following specific objectives - a) identify constraints to sweetpotato production and preferred traits by farmers and end-user in Niger and Nigeria, b) estimate useful genetic variation for agro-morphological traits and by genotyping-by-sequencing analysis, c) develop sweetpotato hybrids for drought tolerance by using Accelerated Breeding Scheme, determine the best heterosis and study G x E interaction for storage root yield under drought stress and d) estimate the combining ability, the genetic control and the heritabilities of traits contributing to drought stress tolerance and storage root yield in sweetpotatoes. A lot has been done in achieving the above objectives, including a survey in Niger to ascertain the constraints and preferred traits by farmers, consumers and marketers. Also, genetic diversity experiment is established at the field at CAS/EBSU/NIGERIA to be harvested in January 2021. Sequencing (285 samples) was carried out at biotechnology Laboratory of BecA-ILRI Kenya and data is being analysed. Similarly, to achieve the third objective, genotypes were planted using diallel mating design (fitted in RCBD) in crossing block for the purpose of generating hybrids for evaluation and selection for drought tolerance.

I am Hervé DEGBEY from Benin Republic, currently conducting my PhD researches in Ebonyi State University in Nigeria under the supervision of Prof Happiness O. Oselebe (host supervisor) and Prof Enoch G. Achigan-Dako (home supervisor). I was admitted as a PhD scholar under the GENES Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Project funded by the European Union in August 2018 and I started my scholarship in February 2019.

I had my MSc Research in August 2014 from the Faculty of Agronomic Science, University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin with specialization in Plant Genetic Resources Conservation and Crop Protection. Currently my PhD researches are focused on genetic diversity and identification of genes of resistance against Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) that is the most serious invader virus causing huge losses in banana and plantain production worldwide. For that I have requested and received banana and plantain genotypes from ITC Gene bank in Belgium and from IITA gene bank in Nigeria. I also collected local cultivars from farmers in Benin and in Nigeria. To address efficiently this issue, apart from my GENES project supervisors, I am working in collaboration with a phytopathologist from University of Ketou in Benin Republic and a Virologist from IITA in order to be able to unravel each aspect of the topic. So far, as results, I have completed the first replication of morphological characterization of accessions in Nigeria. Samples of the genotypes were sent to BeCA/ILRI laboratory in Kenya for sequencing. This has been completed and I am currently analyzing the data to assess genetic diversity and population structure of Musa spp. using SNPs markers. Currently I am working on morphological screening of accessions in Benin to assess their response to the virus. Banana and plantain (Musa spp.) are among the most important crops worldwide (Droc, et al., 2013), cultivated in more than 130 countries across the world (Sardos, et al., 2016). It produces fruits that are rich in potassium, calcium, manganese, carotenoid and vitamin and are used for human nutrition (Adesoye, et al., 2012, Englberger, et al., 2006) and animal feeding in developing countries (Adesoye, et al., 2012).

The plant also provide biomass of sugar, cellulose and starch for industrial uses in developed countries (Droc, et al., 2013). Very easy to digest, a ripened banana contains 70% of water and 27% of digestible sugar. 100g of banana may contain 93.6 Kcal meaning 397 Kj of energy.

Professional Experience

Research Assistant at Faculty of Agronomic Sciences, University of Abomey Calavi (UAC) Benin.

Scientific Publication

Herve Degbey has published one article in Scientific African and has one under review in Molecular Ecology.

Crop of interest

Banana and plantain (Musa spp.) are among the most important crops worldwide (Droc et al., 2013). They are cultivated in more than 130 countries across the world (Sardos et al., 2016) and the fruits are rich in potassium, calcium, manganese, carotenoid and vitamin and are used for human nutrition (Adesoye et al., 2012;Englberger et al., 2006) and animal feeding in developing countries (Adesoye et al., 2012). The plant also provide biomass of sugar, cellulose and starch for industrial uses in developed countries (Droc et al., 2013). A ripened banana contains 70% of water and 27% digestible.

Summary of proposal

Banana Bunchy Top Disease (BBTD) is a severe disease that thoroughly affects banana production under tropic and sub-tropic regions across the world (Stainton et al., 2015). It is the most destructive banana viral diseases, causing up to 100% of yield destruction worldwide(Dale 1987, Kumar, et al., 2015). The disease is caused by Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV), a complex of banana streak viruses (BSVs) and Banana bract mosaic virus (BBrMV) (Dale, 1986;Magee, 1927) which is the most invader virus within the genus of Babuvirusin the family of Nanoviridae (Dale, 1987, Kumara et al., 2011). Recently, Kumara et al. (2011) reported that the virus has reached Central Africa including DRC, Angola, Cameroon, Gabon and Malawi. It has become very invasive and has reached West-Africa and specifically reported in Benin in Ouémé department (6°30'N and 2°36'E) in 2011 (Lokossou et al., 2012). In Nigeria the disease has been for the first time reported in Ogun State in 2012 by Adegbola et al. (2013). The general objective ofthe study is to contribute to reducing the propagation of BBTD in banana and plantain production system in West-Africa. The specific objectives include:(a) assess the genetic structure and the population differentiation among Musa genotypes grown in West-Africa, (b) conduct diagnostic field-assays for screening of BBTV among the non-redundant cultivars of Musa grown in West-Africa, (c) Develop the cost-effective and affordable SSR primer sets for BBTV streams identification with endogenous counterpart.