Populations of the soybean leaf blight pathogen (Rhizoctonia solani AG-1 IA) are highly genetically differentiated along a latitudinal gradient in the major soybean growing regions of Brazil. However, the evolutionary processes leading to regional adaptation are still unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the relative importance of neutral genetic variation and natural selection on the divergence and regional adaptation of populations of the soybean-infecting pathogen R. solani AG-1 IA. Therefore, we compared the phenotypic differentiation in quantitative traits (QST) and the neutral genetic differentiation (FST, based on microsatellites data) among three pairs of populations. As measures of phenotypic responses of the fungus (quantitative traits), we estimated the tolerance to temperature stress and the tolerance to a broad-spectrum fungicide (copper oxychloride) under optimal (25 °C) and high temperature conditions (33.5 °C). In general there was an increase in genetic variance with a positive effect on the heritability for tolerance to copper fungicide under temperature stress. The genetic differences among populations were the main determinants of thermal adaptation in R. solani AG-1 IA (h2 > 0.70). The analysis of neutral genetic structure (FST) indicated subdivision between the three pairs of populations. Although population pairwise comparisons between FST and QST values did not follow a single pattern, the majority of QST values did not differ significantly from FST, indicating that, for the quantitative characters studied, neutrality (or neutral evolution) had a major role in the regional adaptation of R. solani AG-1 IA populations.

Brazil is the world leader in sugarcane production and the largest sugar exporter. Developing new varieties is one of the main factors that contribute to yield increase. In order to select the best genotypes, during the final selection stage, varieties are tested in different environments (locations and years), and breeders need to estimate the phenotypic performance for main traits such as tons of cane yield per hectare (TCH) considering the genotype × environment interaction (GEI) effect. Geneticists and biometricians have used different methods and there is no clear consensus of the best method. In this study, we present a comparison of three methods, viz. Eberhart-Russel (ER), additive main effects and multiplicative interaction (AMMI) and mixed model (REML/BLUP), in a simulation study performed in the R computing environment to verify the effectiveness of each method in detecting GEI, and assess the particularities of each method from a statistical standpoint. In total, 63 cases representing different conditions were simulated, generating more than 34 million data points for analysis by each of the three methods. The results show that each method detects GEI differently in a different way, and each has some limitations. All three methods detected GEI effectively, but the mixed model showed higher sensitivity. When applying the GEI analysis, firstly it is important to verify the assumptions inherent in each method and these limitations should be taken into account when choosing the method to be used.

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The epidemiological relationships between isolated Staphylococcus aureus strains in milk samples of dairy cows, reagent to California Mastitis Test, individual and group milk was demonstrated in different sites of the production fluxogram, in 12 milk-producing farms in the Gameleira region, municipality of Sacramento MG Brazil, so that localization and transmission modes may be identified. Two hundred and forty-four strains out of 446 samples collected at several sites were isolated and bio-chemically characterized as coagulase-positive staphylococcus. Specific chromosome DNA fragment of the species Staphylococcus aureus was amplified to 106 strains and 103 underwent (PFGE). Samples' collection sites with the highest isolation frequency of Staphylococcus aureus strains comprised papillary ostia (31.1%), CMT-reagent cow milk (21.7%), mechanical milking machines' insufflators (21,7%), milk in milk pails (6.6%) and the milk in community bulk tanks (5.6%). Genetic heterogeneity existed among the isolated 103 Staphylococcus aureus strains, since 32 different pulse-types were identified. Pulse-type 1 had the highest similarity among the isolated strains within the different sites of the milk-production fluxogram. Highest occurrence of pulsetype 1 isolates of Staphylococcus aureus strains was reported in samples collected from the papillary ostia (10.6%), followed by milk samples from CMT-reagent dairy cows (5.8%) and mechanical milking machine insufflators (3.8%). The above shows the relevance of these sites in the agents' transmission mechanism within the context of the farms investigated.

The genetic architecture of quantitative characters in plants can be influenced by stress due to environmental changes, in combination with the decrease in the organism’s average performance, resulting in genetic and environmental variances. The main objective of this study was to determine how the high-temperature stress affects the sensitivity of three populations of the soybean foliar blight pathogen Rhizoctonia solani AG-1 IA from Mato Grosso, Maranhão, and Tocantins to a broad-spectrum fungicide. The specific objective was to determine the effect of environmental stress on evolvability components (i.e., the selection response measures such as genotypic, environmental, and phenotypic variances) associated with sensitivity to the broad spectrum dithiocarbamate fungicide mancozeb. The fungal isolates from the three pathogen populations were grown under two temperatures (25 °C and 33.5 ºC, optimum and stress, respectively) and three fungicide concentrations (0.0, 0.32, and 0.64 g·L-1 of active ingredient). The mycelial growth was measured, and evolvability components, such as the genotypic variance coefficient (IG), the environmental variance (IE), and the broad-sense heritability (h2), were determined. The results showed that high-temperature stress decreased (≈ 0.1 units, in a scale from 0 to 1.0) the genotypic variance and the heritability for mancozeb sensitivity in three populations of the soybean foliar blight pathogen R. solani AG-1 IA.