assessment of the genetic diversity of onion cultivars (allium cepa, amaryllidaceae) collected in southern benin

Onion is one of the widely consumed vegetables in most food preparations. the present study aims to evaluate the genetic diversity of onion cultivars in southern benin in 2023. dna isolation of the fourteen (14) morphotypes collected was carried out using the ctab protocol and amplified by pcr using five rapd markers. the observed polymorphism rate was 100%. a total of 35 alleles were scored with an average of 7 per locus. the polymorphism information content (pic) of loci varies from 0.734 to 0.806 with an average of 0.784. the loci opa08 (na = 8 alleles, pic = 0.806) was the most polymorphic and the most discriminating. opb08 (na = 6 alleles, pic = 0.734) was the least polymorphic and the discriminating loci. the rate of rare alleles was ra = 31.42%. the lowest genetic distance (d = 0.09) was observed between pvov and pval but the highest (d = 0.94) was between fpal and bqov genotypes. the dendrogram classified the morphotypes into four genetic groups with a dissimilarity coefficient of 40% confirmed by the principal coordinate analysis. these results are globally significant for the definition of strategies for the improvement, conservation and sustainable use of onion genetic resources in benin.