FONIO MILLETS - ETHNOBOTANY, GENETIC DIVERSITY AND EVOLUTION

True fonio (Digitaria exilis (Kipp.) Stapf) and black fonio (D. iburua Stapf) are two domesticated millets of West Africa. These cereals are used as food and fodder as well as in brewing. They are persistent cr ops that do not require careful cultivation, and thrive under a range of difficult agricultural conditions. Fonio millets are amongst the le ast studied cereal crops, and there has been no study on the genetic d iversity and evolution of these two millets. Random Amplified Polymorp hic DNA (RAPD) approach was used in this study to assess the genetic d iversity in fonio millets and to evaluate proposed hypotheses on their presumed wild progenitors. The results point to a very high genetic d iversity in true fonio and to the possibility of multiple domesticatio n or/and strong ecological or agricultural differentiation. The geneti c diversity in black fonio could not be assessed because of the availa bility of only one accession for the crop. The molecular data substant iate previous hypotheses that point to the morphologically allied spec ies D. longiflora (Hatz) Pers. and D. ternata (A. Rich.) Stapf as poss ible progenitors of true and black fonios, respectively, and do not su pport the proposed genetic affinities between D. fuscescens (Presl) He nr. and true fonio. The study underscores the need for concerted effor t to collect and conserve genetic resources of ionio millets and their wild progenitors since they are poorly represented in world gene bank s.