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This study describes the intraspecific variation of 30 edible-seed Lagenaria siceraria germplasm accessions from the University of Abobo-Adjamé. These accessions were collected from three (Centre, East and South) geographical zones of Côte d’Ivoire. Selection based on seed size by the farmers has resulted in subdividing the species into two cultivars: large-seeded and smallseeded. The morphological diversity study of the collection included 18 accessions and 24 traits. The multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed a significant difference between the two groups of cultivars. Principal component analysis on 13 traits pointed out variations among individuals, mainly on the basis of flower, fruit, and seed size. Dendrogram with UPGMA method allowed clustering of the cultivars. The genetic structure analysis among accessions using allozyme markers showed the following values: 18.95% for the proportion of polymorphic loci (P), 1.21 for the number of alleles (A) and 0.053 for observed heterozygosity (Ho). The level of the within accessions genetic diversity (HS = 0.188) was higher than the genetic variation among accessions (DST = 0.082). The estimates of F-statistics indicated a low level of genetic differentiation between accessions (FST = 0.298). Such a value suggested that L. siceraria maintains about 30% of its genetic variation among accessions. Nei genetic distances between the two cultivars were also low (0.002), indicating that cultivars were genetically similar enough to belong to the same genetic group.

Botanical and agronomical characterisation of three species of cucurbit consumed as sauce in West Africa: Citrullus sp., Cucumeropsis mannii Naudin and Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl. There are in Côte d'Ivoire at least five species of cucurbit incorrectly called ""pistaches"" in town and cultivated at small scale by women for their oleaginous seeds that are a great importance in the sociocultural live of several peoples. Nevertheless, few studies aimed at the improvement of these plants (related notably to taxonomy, genetic resources collecting missions, genetic characterisation, agronomic evaluation, and selection) have been carried out. In order to set up a list of reliable traits that should be examined easily during and after collecting missions, we carry out in the present study, for three species (Citrullus sp., Cucumeropsis mannii Naudin and Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl) a botanic description and an analysis of eleven agronomic traits: 100-seeds weight, germination rate, seedlings emergence time, matured fruit weight, matured fruit decomposition time, mean number of seeds per fruit, seeds shape, fruit diameter, fruit interior cavity diameter, flowering time, and fruiting time. Statistical analyses using nine of these traits showed that the three species can be completely distinguished with six traits whereas the three other traits allowed partial distinction. Low yields have been observed for the three species: 11.41 kg/ha of decorticated seeds for C. mannii, 18.51 kg/ha for Citrullus sp. and 75.14 kg/ha for L. siceraria. From the observed yield components, the possibilities to improve the production of these cucurbits are discussed.