The phenotypic diversity of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) landraces was assessed using morphological traits, verifying how this diversity is distributed among the households and settlements of the Vale do Ribeira, Brazil. A total of 74 accessions, involving 53 landraces, collected from 30 households distributed among 18 settlements that practice traditional agriculture in the municipalities of Iguape, Ilha Comprida, and Cananeia, as well as four commercial varieties acquired in markets of Iguape and Piracicaba, were evaluated under an ex situ experimental condition in Piracicaba, SP, Brazil. Nine phenological and floral descriptors, nine morphological vegetative aerial descriptors and five storage root traits were recorded. The 14 aerial vegetative and root descriptors were evaluated as binary data, totaling 74 attributes. Cluster analyses were made using the Jaccard similarity index and the UPGMA (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean) agglomerative method. Binary data was also submitted to a variance analysis (AMOVA). No defined groups were observed, indicating that the diversity of the landraces is not structured in space, but considerable morphological variation was found in this area (Jaccard similarity index varying from 0.12 to 1.0). Most of the variability occurred within households (64.4%), followed by the distribution among households within settlements (27.1%) and among settlements (8.4%). Thus, the traditional agriculturists of Vale do Ribeira maintain a high morphological diversity for sweet potato within their households, which can be assumed to be produced by the outcrossing mating system of this species and somatic mutation events, as well as the exchange system at local and regional levels.
Approximately 75% of the worldwide production of hard natural fibers originates from sisal, an industrial crop from arid and semiarid tropical regions. Brazil is the world's largest producer of sisal fiber, accounting for more than 40% of the worldwide production, and sisal bole rot disease has been the main phytosanitary problem of this crop. All previous studies reporting Aspergillus niger as the causal agent of the disease were based on the morphological features of fungal isolates from infected plant tissues in pure cultures. Black aspergilli are one of the most complex and difficult groups to classify and identify. Therefore, we performed an integrative analysis of this disease based on the isolation of black aspergilli from the endospheres and soils in the root zones of symptomatic adult plants, in vivo pathogenicity tests, histopathology of symptomatic plants, and molecular phylogeny and worldwide genetic variability of the causal agent. All sisal isolates were pathogenic and unequivocally produced symptoms of bole rot disease in healthy plants. In all tree-based phylogenetic methods used, a monophyletic group formed by A. welwitschiae along with all sisal isolates was retrieved. Ten A. welwitschiae haplotypes have been identified in the world, and three occur in the largest sisal-producing area. Most of the isolates are from a unique haplotype, present in only the sisal-producing region. A. welwitschiae destroyed parenchymatic and vascular cylinder cells and induced the necrosis of internal stem tissues. Therefore, sisal bole disease is probably the consequence of a saprotrophic fungus that opportunistically invades sisal plants and behaves as a typical necrotrophic pathogen.
Characterization of the genetic diversity of Amazonian isolates of Crinipellis perniciosa from infected tissues of Theobroma cacao. Witches' broom disease of cacao (Theobroma cacao L.), caused by the basidiomycete Crinipellis perniciosa, devastated the producing region of Southern Bahia, previously cultivated mainly with highly susceptible cultivars, forcing Brazil, a typical exporter country to become a cocoa importer. The loss of resistance of the genotype "Scavina 6", the unique source of resistance against C. perniciosa has been associated with pathogen genetic variability. Thus, the objective of this study was to characterize the genetic diversity of C. perniciosa isolated derived from infected tissues of T. cacao ('green-brooms'), originally collected in the Amazon (Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia states), a region with endemic occurrence of the fungus, using molecular markers. The identification of the genetic relationships among the Amazonian and Bahian isolates, and the possible existence of geographical isolates were also objectives of this work. First, the identification confirmation of the Amazonian isolates was conducted using amplification and digestion of the ITS region of the rDNA and telomeric markers. All isolates evaluated were confirmed as C. perniciosa. The telomeric primer TeloC1, previously shown to discriminate the C biotype, allowed the separation of biotype C from biotypes S and L, but it revealed genetic diversity for isolates from Cametá, PA and Cacaulândia, RO. Using another telomeric marker amplified with TeloA1 primer and ERIC, a large genetic diversity was detected for isolates from the Amazon in comparison to Bahian. Within the Amazonian isolates, more diversity was detected for isolates from Rondônia (Ji-Paraná, Cacaulândia and Ariquemes) and Pará (Cametá), areas with endemic occurrence of wild cacao or historical introduction and cultivation (over 300 years), respectively. Isolates colletected at the Transamazônica roadway,
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