Prevalence and genotypic frequency of color vision defects among primary schoolchildren in Adama Town, Eastern Ethiopia.

Color vision deficiency is a common X-linked genetic disorder affecting the day-to-day lives of individuals, in which school-aged children's academic performance can be negatively affected. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and genotypic frequency of congenital color vision defects (CVD), among primary schoolchildren in Adama, Ethiopia. A school-based cross-sectional study design was used. Students were purposively selected based on their ethnicity but were randomly selected from their sections, resulting in a final sample size estimated at 846 schoolchildren who had received informed consent from their families. Data was gathered using the Ishihara color vision test, 38-plate edition. The result of the study revealed that the total prevalence of CVD was much higher (5.6%) among the male children than that of the females, which was only about 1.79%. The prevalence rates of CVD among the targeted ethnic groups were found to be the highest among Amhara (7.45%) > Oromo (5.00%) > Gurage (2.13%) children, respectively, in descending order. 62.76% of the study subjects were homozygous dominant (AA), followed by those with a heterozygous genotype (Aa) (32.51%), and the remaining 4.73% had recessive (aa) genes.

Phenotypic characterization and seed viability test in ex-situ conserved Ethiopian cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) landraces.

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, most of the Ethiopian barley landraces had been lost from farmer's field and exclusively found ex-situ conserved at the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI). Those ex-situ conserved are generally believed to be representative of the original population and possess high genetic diversity and important unique genes that are useful for tackling the various biotic and abiotic stresses in the face of the current climate change. Thus, this research was aimed at testing the performance of 150 ex-situ conserved landraces that had been collected from Arsi and Bale highlands, Southeastern Ethiopia. The landraces were tested at multiple test locations over two years (2021 and 2022). RESULTS: All the tested landraces showed a good germination rate regardless of their long storage duration. In addition, performance of all the qualitative traits revealed a varying frequency for each character state. For example, most of the accessions (51.3%) had six kernel row numbers (KRN). All the remaining accessions had two rows (28.7%) and irregular KRN with variable lateral florets (20%). Likewise, some of the quantitative traits considered showed a significant variation among the landraces. However, there observed a significant variation for all the interaction effects in some of the traits considered signifying the importance of considering environment effects while targeting genetic selection and improvement of ex-situ conserved germplasms. The phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) were considerably high to medium in most of the traits considered including seed yield per hectare (SYPH) but with no associated higher genotypic coefficients of variation (GCV). Moreover, all the traits showed a far greater phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) to that of genotypic coefficients of variation (GCV) once again suggesting the pronounced effect of environmental factors to the variation. This was far supported by the significantly higher absolute magnitudes in phenotypic correlation compared to their corresponding genotypic correlation in most of the traits. Low estimates of heritability and genetic advance observed in all the traits considered except seed yield per hectare indicate importance of the trait for selection in Ethiopian barley improvement programs. Clustering patterns of the accessions, in narrow sense, revealed the existence of low divergence among the samples. CONCLUSION: Ethiopian barley landraces are promising candidates for further yield improvement and conservation. However, further regular testing and screening should be conducted for the ex-situ conserved landraces because of the current erratic climate change. In addition, more robust molecular marker systems could be used to clearly reveal the extents of genetic diversity and to facilitate the breeding and conservation of Ethiopian barley landraces.