Abstract
African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa (Hochst. ex A. Rich.) Harms.) (Fabaceae) is a versatile crop of nutritional, nutraceutical, and pharmacological value widely grown for its edible seeds and underground tubers. Its high-quality protein, rich mineral elements, and low cholesterol make it a suitable source of food for age groups. However, the crop is still under-exploited and constrained by factors such as intra-specific incompatibility, low yields, indeterminate growth pattern and long gestation period, hard-to-cook (HTC) seeds, and the presence of antinutritional factors (ANFs). To efficiently utilize its genetic resources for improvement and utilization, it is necessary to understand the crop's sequence information and select promising accessions for molecular hybridization trials and conservation purposes. A total of 24 accessions of AYB were collected from the Genetic Resources center of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria, and subjected to PCR amplification and Sanger sequencing. The dataset determines genetic relatedness among the twenty-four accessions of AYB. The data consist of partial rbcL gene sequences (24), estimates of intra-specific genetic diversity, the maximum likelihood of transition/transversion bias, and evolutionary relationships based on the UPMGA clustering method. The data identified 13 variables (segregating sites) as SNPs, 5 haplotypes, and codon usage of the species that can be explored further to advance the genetic utilization of AYB.