Browsing by Author "Sseremba, Godfrey"
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- ItemCompatibility Barriers Affecting Crossability Between Solanum aethiopicum and Its Relatives(Scientific Journals (Nature), 2022) Namutosi, Winnie; Bulyaba, Rosemary; Nakanwangi, Mildred Julian; Buteme, Ruth; Sseremba, Godfrey; Kizito, Elizabeth BalyejusaReproductive barriers are single most important impediment in conventional breeding of Solanum aethiopicum (Shum and Gilo) and its relatives. This study investigated compatibility barriers between S. aethiopicum and its relatives. A randomized complete block design and a full diallel mating method were used to evaluate floral phenology and compatibility of six genotypes at different floral stages. Parameters assessed include; anthesis, anther dehiscence, stigma receptivity, among others. Results showed that most flowers in anthesis per genotype were counted at 8:00am. Overall mean number of open flowers differed significantly (P<0.001) and was highest for N11(n=13) and least for E12(n=3). Anther dehiscence varied significantly (P<.001) among floral stages. However, there was no difference among genotypes. All genotypes showed high pollen viability (> 80%) although they differed significantly (P<0.01). Stigma receptivity averaged highest (3.31) for N11 and least (2.31) for In1. All genotypes exhibited self-compatibility; N11 averaged highest for fruit set (67.93%), seed per fruit (82) and F1 germination (79%). Crosses revealed moderate compatibility (50%); highest fruit were in N4xN11 (71.97%), seed N11xA1 (56) and F1 germination inN11x N4 (76.3%) respectively. In the crosses where In1 was a female parent 80% incompatibility was observed at fruit set whereas73% of crosses where E12 was a female parent set fruits without seed. Female functioning may be a major factor in observed incompatibility between S. aethiopicum and its relatives. To harness the potential of S. aethiopicum relatives, N11 and N4 can be advanced as female parents in wide hybridizations.
- ItemDentification of Growth Stage-Specific Watering Thresholds for Drought Screening in Solanum aethiopicum Shum(Natureresearch, 2020) Nakanwagi, Mildred Julian; Sseremba, Godfrey; Kabod Nahamya , Pamela; Masanza, Michael; Balyejusa Kizito, ElizabethEffective phenotyping for drought resistance is a pre-requisite for identification of modest crop varieties for farmers. For neglected and underutilized crops such as Solanum aethiopicum Shum group, no drought screening protocol based on rigorous iterations has been documented. A split-plot nested treatment structure was arranged in an experiment to identify growth stage-specific watering thresholds for this crop. Three plant growth stages (main plot; seedling, vegetative and flowering), watering regime at plant growth stage (2 regimes; well-watered and drought stressed) and day since last watering at plant growth stage were evaluated for soil moisture content (SMC), leaf wilting score (LWS), number of green leaves per plant (LPP) and leaf blade width (LBW). Highly significant differences (p < 0.001) were found at the different plant growth stages, watering regime (WR) within plant growth stage, and day within WR and plant growth stage. Under drought stress treatment, SMC declined exponentially at each stage. The earliest leaf wilting, reduction in LPP and LBW were generally observed at flowering followed by vegetative and slowest at the seedling stage. For future effective drought phenotyping studies in S. aethiopicum Shum and related crops, we recommend setting minimum drought stress treatments below 18% SMC at which the LWS is ≥2 at the vegetative.
- ItemDiversity and distribution of African indigenous vegetable species in Uganda(Academic Journals, 2017-11) Kizito, Elizabeth B.; Masanza, Michael; Sseremba, Godfrey; Kabod, Nahamya Pamela; Kasharu, Apolo Katwijukye; Jaggwe, John NkaluboAfrican indigenous vegetable species (AIVS) provide a means of livelihood to many urban and peri-urban dwellers in Uganda. It was thus deemed necessary to understand the existing diversity and distribution of the traditional African vegetable species as a basis for recommending conservation and utilization strategies against biodiversity loss. A field survey was conducted in the four major agro-ecological zones of Uganda to provide information on a recent abundance of the various AIVS. Results from the survey showed that the Solanaceae (43.4%), Amaranthaceae (15.5%) and Malvaceae (11.6%) were the most prevalent families out of seven different families encountered. Twenty-three (23) species, a number lower than that initially reported in literature and distributed unevenly in the different regions were identified. Majority of the species were the indigenous rather than introduced vegetable species. Firstly, the study is informative of the superior importance of Solanaceous species compared to other AIVS. Secondly, the survey results indicate that the AIVS are becoming increasingly more important in Uganda than their introduced counterparts since all the 43.4% that composed the Solanaceae majority were of indigenous type. Research efforts should be devoted towards improved variety development and germplasm conservation to prevent a possible biodiversity loss of the most important AIVS for increased household incomes and nutrient security among the resource-poor majority in Uganda and other sub-Saharan Africa countries
- ItemFarmer Preferred Traits and Genotype Choices in Solanum aethiopicum L., Shum Group(Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 2021) Kizito, Elizabeth B; Bishop, Gerard; Nakanwagi, Mildred Julian; Buteme, Ruth; Waholi, Kenneth; Kyebalyenda, Tadeo; Rwothtimutung, Moses; Nahamya, Pamela Kabod; Sseremba, Godfrey; Nakyewa, BrendaBackground: Solanum aethiopicum L. is a nutrient dense African indigenous vegetable. However, advancement of its improved varieties that can increase productivity, household income, and food security has not been prioritized. Further still, studies on some of the crops that have been worked have indicated that it is not a guarantee that the improved varieties will be accepted by the end users and therefore there is need to identify and profile what genotypes are of interest to farmers and their preferred traits through inclusive participatory evaluations. Methodology: Farmer participatory evaluations were conducted to profile farmers’ traits of interest and preferred genotypes. A total of 24 genotypes were established in three replications in 6 farms in 3 districts; Wakiso, Mukono, and Luwero as these are the major producing districts of the vegetable in Uganda. A total of 177 sex-disaggregated farmers were engaged in scoring the genotypes for pest, disease and drought tolerance, general appeal, leaf yield, leaf texture, and seed yield for best 10 genotypes under each variable. Results: Non-significant differences in trait (p > 0.05) and genotype preferences (p > 0.05) were obtained between men and women. The most desired farmer traits were seed and leaf yield, followed by pest and disease resistance. The overall preferred genotype in terms of disease and pest resistance, leaf yield, leaf texture, and seed yield were E12 followed by E11. Conclusion: Gender does not seem to influence farmer choices for the S. aethiopicum, Shum group, indicating an opportunity for single variety prototype advancement by breeders and dissemination by seed companies.
- ItemHeritability of drought resistance in Solanum aethiopicum Shum group and combining ability of genotypes for drought tolerance and recovery(Elsevier publications, 2018-06) Sseremba, Godfrey; Tongoonaa, Pangirayi; Eleblua, John; Danquaha, Eric Yirenkyi; Kizito, Elizabeth BDrought tolerance is a complex trait whose inheritance had not been investigated in Solanum aethiopicum L. Shum group. This is partly because of perceived cross incompatibilities in the crop. This study relied on 24 successful crosses from an incomplete 9×4 North Carolina II mating design, evaluated under five watering conditions based on plant growth stage and watering level in order to determine the heritability of drought resistance and combining ability. Subsequent data analyses were based on restricted maximum likelihood. Overall, specific combining ability (SCA) effects were significant across and within watering environments for all study traits. The most highly heritable traits (in the narrow-sense) were identified as leaves per plant, chlorophyll content (CHL), leaf fresh yield and leaf dry yield while leaf area (LA), leaf relative water content (LRWC) and leaf mass area (LMA) were least heritable. However, the broad sense heritability (H2) was over 0.80 for seven of the traits, indicating that dominance gene action surpass additive gene effects for drought resistance in S. aethiopicum Shum. Further analysis showed that LA is suited for selection of best combiners under well-watered and drought-stress (DS) treatments. The LRWC served best in separating the SCA effects of crosses under DS. The CHL produced clear separations of SCA effects under both DS and drought recovery while LMA served best under the latter.
- ItemIdentification of Growth Stage Specific Watering Thresholds for Drought Screening in Solanum aethiopicum Shum(Nature Research, 2020-01-21) Nakanwagi, Mildred Julian; Sseremba, Godfrey; Nahamya, Pamela Kabod; Masanza, Michael; Kizito, Elizabeth BalyejusaEffective phenotyping for drought resistance is a pre-requisite for identification of modest crop varieties for farmers. For neglected and underutilized crops such as Solanum aethiopicum Shum group, no drought screening protocol based on rigorous iterations has been documented. A split-plot nested treatment structure was arranged in an experiment to identify growth stage-specific watering thresholds for this crop. Three plant growth stages (main plot; seedling, vegetative and flowering), watering regime at plant growth stage (2 regimes; well-watered and drought stressed) and day since last watering at plant growth stage were evaluated for soil moisture content (SMC), leaf wilting score (LWS), number of green leaves per plant (LPP) and leaf blade width (LBW). Highly significant differences (p < 0.001) were found at the different plant growth stages, watering regime (WR) within plant growth stage, and day within WR and plant growth stage. Under drought stress treatment, SMC declined exponentially at each stage. The earliest leaf wilting, reduction in LPP and LBW were generally observed at flowering followed by vegetative and slowest at the seedling stage. For future effective drought phenotyping studies in S. aethiopicum Shum and related crops, we recommend setting minimum drought stress treatments below 18% SMC at which the LWS is ≥2 at the vegetative
- ItemMorphological distinctiveness between Solanum aethiopicum Shum group and its progenitor(Academic Journals, 2017-08) Kizito, Elizabeth B.; Sseremba, Godfrey; Tongoona, Pangirayi; Eleblu, John Savior Yaw; Danquah, Eric Yirenkyi; Kabod, Nahamya PamelaUse of morphological markers offers an alternative in germplasm discrimination of research-neglected crop species. A collection of 25 accessions including five wild progenitors was evaluated in screen house to identify the morphological difference between Solanum aethiopicum Shum and Solanum anguivi. An Unweighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic mean hierarchical clustering revealed presence of moderate structure with a cophenetic correlation coefficient of 0.73. Five distinct clusters were produced; the progenitor accessions for the S. aethiopicum Shum were grouped in their own cluster. The Richness, Shannon-Weaver and Simpson indices were also different among qualitative variable categories. A ‘prcomp’ function based Principal component analysis (PCA) in R on quantitative variables indicated that days to germination and emergence, cotyledonous leaf length, cotyledonous leaf width, shoot biomass, plant height, petiole length, days to first flowering opening, plant width, plant branching, and number of leaves per plant are the major drivers of variability in the study accessions. Further, results from canonical discriminant analysis to discern between the S. aethiopicum and its progenitor accession groups showed that the days to germination and emergence provide the best separation; with the former emerging earlier than the latter. The mean values for flowering time, leaves per plant, number of branches per plant and plant height were more favorable for the Shum than its wild progenitor accessions. The study revealed that morphological markers are useful in distinguishing between the S. aethiopicum Shum and its progenitor accessions.
- ItemPerformance of Solanum aethiopicum Shum group accessions under repetitive drought stress.(2018-01) Nakanwagi, Mildred Julian; Sseremba, Godfrey; Masanza, Michael; Kizito, Elizabeth B.Drought is a serious climatic hazard to crop production, more especially when it occurs repeatedly. This created a need to identify repetitive drought tolerant varieties that recover following exposure to drought. Twenty accessions of Solanum aethiopicum Shum group were evaluated for their response to repeated drought exposure in a screen house at Uganda Christian University stressed and well-watered conditions in a split-plot arrangement. Data was collected on growth and yield parameters namely leaf area, plant canopy width, plant height, plant branching, fresh leaf weight, fresh shoot biomass, and harvest index. Exposure of plants to repetitive drought stress led to significant decrease in all evaluated growth parameters at p<0.001 except for plant branching. Similarly, yield parameters exhibited a highly significant difference among accessions and between water levels at p<0.001. Principal component analysis of growth rate traits showed that leaf area contributed to the highest variation for recovery from repetitive drought stress among accessions. The accessions that recovered best from drought stress include SAS108/2015, SAS163/P/2015, SAS183/G/2015, and SAS168/G/2015. For yield parameters, the accessions SAS137/2015, SAS148/2015, SAS108/P/2015, and SAS160/2015 had the highest dry shoot biomass. These findings indicate prospect for improvement of tolerance to repetitive drought stress in S. aethiopicum Shum group.
- ItemStability for Descriptors of Solanum aethiopicum Shum Group (Family Solanaceae)(Journal of Plant Breeding and Crop Science, 2018-09-30) Kabod, Nahamya Pamela; Sseremba, Godfrey; Buteme, Ruth; Masanza, Michael; Kizito, Balyejusa Elizabeth; Kasharu, Katwijukye ApoloSolanum aethiopicum Shum group is a nutrient-rich and income-generating crop enterprise in various sub-Saharan Africa countries. Despite its importance, the development of its improved varieties has not been prioritized. Until now, no field-based descriptor development reference for the crop is available for testing candidate varieties for distinctiveness, uniformity and stability. The purpose of this study is to identify morphological variables that provide identity of S. aethiopicum Shum group accessions across environments. With ten accessions across three test locations, it was observed that the highly polymorphic morphological variables were majorly vegetative and a few reproductive ones. They include plant height at flowering, plant canopy breadth, plant branching, petiole color, petiole length, leaf blade length, leaf blade width, leaf lobbing, leaf tip angle, flowering time, style length, fruit position, fruit flesh density, fruits per inflorescence and fruit flavor. A static stability analysis, a common selection technique for obtaining consistence in performance of genotypes, showed that accessions varied in their interaction with environments for different descriptors. The most statically stable accessions were 184P and 163P while the least stables were 168P, 148, 141, and 137. The findings indicate the potential for identifying unique and stable varieties of S. aethiopicum Shum group for the processing of official release to farmers.