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Morphological and microsatellites (SSR) markers are efficient tools for determining genetic relatedness among mango cultivars. Seventeen mango cultivars were used for this study. Eight fruit quantitative traits were collected and subjected to mean separation using One-Way ANOVA and correlation using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Also, molecular analysis was done using PCR-based SSR markers. The resulting binary matrix was analyzed using Numerical Taxonomy and Multivariate Analysis System (NTSYSpc). Significant variation (p ≤ .05) among all the 17 mango cultivars was observed for the eight quantitative traits studied. The PCA showed that the fruits length, width, thickness weights, %pulp and %stone contributed to 98.73% of the variation observed in all the mango cultivars. A total of 21 alleles were detected from the seven polymorphic primers ranging from two to five alleles per locus with an average of 3.0 alleles per locus. The polymorphic information content (PIC) ranged from 0.52 to 0.80 with an average of 0.66. Both the morphological and molecular markers showed that the mango cultivars were diverse except for ‘Saigon’ and ‘Julie’ as well as ‘Harden’ and ‘Lipen’ which though appear morphologically distinct based on the understudied traits but showed strong similarity to each other through molecular analysis. Dendrogram constructed using the Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean (UPGMA) based on SSR markers revealed a similarity coefficient of 48–93% indicating high level of variability and the presence of outbreeding. Results of the morphological and microsatellite (SSR) analyses showed wide diversity among the mango cultivar used in this study.

Understanding the level and distribution of genetic diversity in African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) would strengthen breeding and conservation programmes towards domestication and sustainable use of this species. Sixteen accessions of P. globosa were assessed for variability based on seed morphology, seed protein and DNA profiling. Significant variation in seed characteristics were observed across locations. Seed protein profiling by SDS-PAGE revealed homogeneity as most bands were found common in all accessions, indicating that the protein profiles are highly conserved. Protein profiling separated the 16 accessions into four major clusters at 0.93 similarity coefficient. Most accessions grouping into Cluster 1 had a similarity coefficient of close to 100% and were from the Derived Savanna suggesting the presence of duplicates. Accessions NH/2016/P14, NH/2016/P03 and NH/2016/P04 grouped into clusters II, III and IV; respectively. Sixteen RAPD markers generated a total of 256 bands of which 63.67% were polymorphic. Gene diversity ranged from 0.41 to 0.93 and Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) from 0.39 to 0.93. The RAPD-based dendrogram separated accessions into six groups at 0.68 similarity coefficient. Based on a polymorphic seed storage protein marker a genetically distinct accession NH/2016/P04 could be exploited for breeding purposes. The homogeneity of alleles and narrow genetic base as revealed by RAPD and SDS-PAGE analyses suggests possible loss of intraspecific genetic diversity. Thus, intensification of germplasm collections across the different agroecological zones and characterization using specific markers will give a better understanding of diversity of P. biglobosa in order to enhance selection towards conservation, breeding and sustainable utilization.