The Ghanaian Pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum, (L), R.Br] Landrace

Germplasm (store of genetic information) characterisation can be carried out by means of morphological, biochemical, or molecular analysis. Molecular analysis using genomic DNA is reliable since it can be carried out at any developmental state of plant and offers the opportunity to efficiently compare all accessions. The Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers used have demonstrated to be very informative in studying relationships in closely related plant species as well as readily detecting co-dominant inheritance and exhibiting a high level of polymorphism per loci. 126 Pearl millet accessions were collected from Northern Ghana, home to Pearl millet production in Ghana. These were grouped into Early, Medium and Late maturing classes. 36 Pearl millet SSR markers were used to genotype 119 of the accessions which revealed an average of 8.8 alleles per locus (range of 3 - 20). The results obtained indicate high polymorphism in the accessions. The sizes of alleles ranged from 98bp to 377bp. A combination of molecular and morpho-agronomic data resulted in 30 accessions selected as core to serve as trait-specific and local gene source for enhanced Pearl millet breeding work in Ghana.