Molecular characterization and population structure study of cambuci: strategy for conservation and genetic improvement

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Cambuci (Campomanesia phaea) belongs to the Myrtaceae family and is native to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It has ecological and social appeal but is exposed to problems associated with environmental degradation and expansion of agricultural activities in the region. Comprehensive studies on this species are rare, making its conservation and genetic improvement difficult. Thus, it is important to develop research activities to understand the current situation of the species as well as to make recommendations for its conservation and use. This study was performed to characterize the cambuci accessions found in the germplasm bank of Coordenadoria de Assistência Técnica Integral using inter-simple sequence repeat markers, with the goal of understanding the plant's population structure. The results showed the existence of some level of genetic diversity among the cambuci accessions that could be exploited for the genetic improvement of the species. Principal coordinate analysis and discriminant analysis clustered the 80 accessions into three groups, whereas Bayesian modelbased clustering analysis clustered them into two groups. The formation of two cluster groups and the high membership coefficients within the groups pointed out the importance of further collection to cover more areas and more genetic variability within the species. The study also showed the lack of conservation activities; therefore, more attention from the appropriate organizations is needed to plan and implement natural and ex situ conservation activities.

A importância dos saberes etnobotânicos para a construção de agroecossistemas sustentáveis: o exemplo do cambuci (Campomanesia phaea)

“…Destacam-se ainda aqui, estudos que podem subsidiar melhor entendimento referente à botânica, ecologia, frutificação, propagação, plantio, produção e conservação do cambucizeiro: estudos com as sementes, analisando a colheita, tolerância à dessecação, germinação, vigor e armazenamento (Maluf;Pisciottano-Ereio, 2005;Santoro et al, 2020;Silva et al, 2021); sobre a fenologia e a polinização, verificando as fases da planta e as abelhas e outros polinizadores que a visitam (Cordeiro, 2015;Cordeiro et al, 2017); sobre as técnicas de propagação vegetativa e in vitro, aperfeiçoando as formas de multiplicação da espécie (Demétrio et al, 2021;Santoro et al, 2021;Santoro et al, 2022); sobre o crescimento e o desenvolvimento em sistemas de enriquecimento em remanescentes florestais (Souza, 2011); sobre as formas de plantio, espaçamento, adubação, irrigação e produção de mudas (Ronchi, 2021); sobre a influência de recipientes e substratos no desenvolvimento de mudas (Santoro et al, 2024); sobre a patologia, analisando os patógenos que causam antracnose e podridão de folhas e frutos no pós-colheita (Santos et al, 2016a;Santos et al, 2017); e sobre as populações e variabilidade genética, contribuindo para o desenvolvimento de estratégias de conservação da espécie (Santos et al, 2016b;Moreira et al, 2022).…”

Parents choice and genetic divergence between cambuci fruit tree accessions

“…The cooperative also works together with the Coordination of Integral Technical Assistance (CATI) for the production of new seedlings (Andrade et al 2011). Much information on the cultivation and management of cambuci fruit tree, and also few reports on the fruit pattern and on the main characters (Bianchini et al 2015) are available in the literature (Santos et al 2016). …”