ABSTRACT

Loss of biodiversity and ecosystem degradation become major concerns worldwide, making the conservation process an important strategy for maintaining biodiversity. Capsicum chinense Jacq. is the most Brazilian species of the genus, with representatives in different biomes. Anthropic pressure, such as burns, real estate speculation, and changing cultivation habit has led to risks of genetic erosion. Conservation and characterization of conserved accessions are paramount to ensure genetic diversity, useful for the bioeconomy and for genetic improvement. We report the characterization of 55 C. chinense accessions from four different regions of Brazil and one accession from Peru. The accessions were characterized based on 37 morpho-agronomic variables, Inter Simple Sequence Repeats—ISSR and Simple Sequence Repeat—SSR. Qualitative descriptors were analyzed using a descriptive statistical, while the quantitative descriptors were analyzed via F test and significant differences in mean values were separated using Scott-Knott test. The relative contribution of each quantitative trait was determined. A correlation between morphological and molecular distances was calculated. Color of ripe fruit and fruit shape had the largest number of observed classes. Six distinct groups and the joint analysis presented an entanglement rate of 0.58, evidencing the divergence of accessions between the groups of both dendrograms. Bayesian analysis allowed the distinction of two clusters for SSR. A significant variability was observed among accession with potential to integrate several breeding programs.

The collection and characterization of tomato germplasm are of relevant importance for agriculture. This study aimed to collect and characterize, by way of morphological description and statistical tools for the composition of groups, tomato accesses from the Southern and Serrana regions of the State of Espírito Santo, as well as to establish the tomato germplasm bank of the Ifes - Campus de Alegre. Thirty-seven accessions were collected from different commercial locations of Espírito Santo. The experiment was conducted in the Ifes Campus de Alegre in the Agroecology sector. For the morpho-agronomic characterization, sixteen essential descriptors were used, nine quantitative and seven qualitative. In the color of the ripe fruit, there was the formation of five distinct groups with the colors yellow, green, orange, pink and red. In the format of the fruit, three groups were formed, slightly flattened, flattened and rounded. The ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference for all the quantitative characteristics evaluated. According to the Ward-MLM procedure, due to the high likelihood function in group seven (from 130.71), it was possible to group the 37 genotypes into seven groups. The greatest dissimilarity was observed in groups V and VII with a distance of 330.02, and the least dissimilar ones, groups IV and VI, with 8.21. Genetic variability was detected in tomato germplasm for the morpho-agronomic characteristics. Many of the accessions are promising sources of phenotypes of interest to the Ifes germplasm bank.

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