The African fan palm, Borassus aethiopum, is widely distributed in West and Central Africa. To contribute to the understanding of its evolutionary history and geographical distribution, we have performed the analysis of its genetic diversity and population structure through a wide samples collection in different countries. Simple sequences repeat (SSR) markers were used to assess the population structure and genetic diversity of such samples. Genetic diversity was estimated for a total of 201 samples of B. aethiopum using 13 SSR markers. The result of our analysed populations indicated a mean value of expected heterozygosity (He) of 0.395, suggesting a moderate genetic diversity, with 62% and 37% of molecular variance within individuals and among populations, respectively. Clustering analysis by using Bayesian method and principal component analysis clustered populations into two main groups corresponding to the two sampling regions (West and Central Africa), and each group consists of two genetic clusters. In addition to this, we tested the ability of the same SSR markers to discriminate between both fan palm species occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, namely B. aethiopum and B. akeassii. Hence, our markers can be used as molecular tools for differentiating both species and furthermore for genetic diversity of B. akeassii populations.

Borassus akeassii, Genetic markers, Population structure, Rhon palms, Sub-Saharan Africa