Phenotypic Profiling of Anchote (Coccinia abyssinica (Lam.) Cogn) Accessions Through Agro-Morphological and Physiological Markers

Anchote (Coccinia abyssinica) is a neglected high-potential food and nutrition security tuber crop in Ethiopia. Phenotyping core germplasm collections using agro-morphological and physiological markers is essential for effective crop improvement and utilization. A total of 282 anchote germplasms were profiled using six qualitative and twenty-six quantitative agro-morphological and physiological traits. Augmented Block Design was used for the experiment at the Debre Zeit Agricultural Research Center. The chi-square test and Shannon diversity index indicated the presence of substantial phenotypic variation and diversity among the accessions based on the predominant qualitative traits studied. The quantitative agro-morphological and physiological traits showed wider variability and ranges for the accessions. The broad-sense heritability and genetic advance as a percentage of the mean were notably high for quantitative traits such as root yield, vine length, and leaf area index. A significantly positive correlation was observed among agronomically important traits such as root yield and root diameter as well as root yield and leaf area. The principal component analysis for qualitative and quantitative traits found that ten components explained 72.2% of the variation for qualitative traits, whereas nine components accounted for 69.96% of the variation in quantitative traits. The primary contributors to the variations are traits such as root (shape, flesh color, and yield), leaf (color, length, diameter, area) and fruit (length, diameter, and weight). Further, the accessions were grouped into two and three clusters based on qualitative and quantitative traits, respectively, indicating that quantitative characters better differentiated among the accessions. Similarly, the tanglegram showed little similarity between the qualitative and quantitative agro-morphological and physiological traits in clustering the accessions. These findings indicate the presence of sizable trait variation among the accessions that can be exploited as a selection marker to design and facilitate conservation and breeding strategies of anchote.