Development of Mapping Populations for Yam (Dioscorea rotundata Poir. and Dioscorea alata L.) Improvement

The development of yam genomic resources would no doubt complement and expedite conventional breeding approaches in yams. These genomic strides will be valuable for the yam breeding community when a strong link exist between molecular and phenotypic data. In our previous study, the genetic structure, diversity and ploidy status of core set of West African yam germplasm was determined. This formed the basis of selection for our pre- breeding activities. Using phenotypic attributes and farmers indigenous knowledge, we selected some genetic stocks for recombination. To this end, we seek to develop full sib F₁ mapping populations by crossing extremely diverse parents in terms of economic and agronomic traits. Our second approach is focussing on using diverse set of eight parental plants to make recurrent inter- crossing. This will result in highly recombined heterogeneous population. These population development will serve as a novel genetic resource for  yam crop improvement.