Abstract
The descriptors used to differentiate new soybean cultivars which ensure their protection, has become insufficient. This makes evident the need to expand the list of that already used. The morphological traits that may be used as descriptors can be quantitative or qualitative; however, in the evaluation of their efficiency, they are not always analyzed simultaneously. Thus, this study aimed to identify new morphological characteristics for purposes of discrimination of soybean cultivars with the aid of Gower algorithm, which allows evaluation of quantitative and qualitative characters simultaneously. Ten soybean cultivars were used in two experiments, one in the summer and another in the winter. They were conducted in a greenhouse. The experiments were carried out in an experimental randomized complete block design with four replications. Each experimental unit consisted of one pot with two plants. Five quantitative and seventeen qualitative characteristics were evaluated and the discrimination analysis was performed by Gower algorithm. It was concluded that there are differences among cultivars for all traits analyzed in both sowing dates, except for the opening of the petioles of the unifoliolate leaves. The use of Gower algorithm was efficient in the evaluation of discriminatory capacity of quantitative and qualitative characteristics simultaneously, demonstrating that they are useful as soybean descriptors. Key words: Glycine max (L.), law on plant variety protection, productivity, qualitative variables.
Highlights
The expansion and establishment of agricultural frontiers was only possible due to the development of cultivars with high yield, broad adaptation to different environmental conditions, and resistant to pests and diseases (EMBRAPA, 2011)
The use of Gower algorithm was efficient in the evaluation of discriminatory capacity of quantitative and qualitative characteristics simultaneously, demonstrating that they are useful as soybean descriptors
22 characteristics were evaluated, which were not used as soybean descriptors, being five qualitative [base shape of unifoliate leaf (BSUL), phyllotaxy of the first pair of trifoliate leaves (PFTL), depression in the pod (DV), hypocotyl color (HC), and size of pod apiculus (SPA)] and seventeen quantitative traits [hypocotyl length (HL), plant height (PH), epicotyl length (EL), length of the first internode (LFI), petiole length of the first trifoliate leaf (PLFTL), petiole length of the unifoliate leaf (PLUL), rachis length of the first trifoliate leaf (RLFTL), angle formed by the insertion of petiole of the unifoliate leaf (APUL), opening angle of the petioles of the unifoliolate leaves (OAPUL), stem diameter (SD), being these measured only once when the plants were in stage V3 (Fehr and Caviness, 1977)
Summary
The expansion and establishment of agricultural frontiers was only possible due to the development of cultivars with high yield, broad adaptation to different environmental conditions, and resistant to pests and diseases (EMBRAPA, 2011). In Brazil, the protection of intellectual property rights on the varieties is performed. It is necessary to prove the new plant variety is distinct, uniform, and stable. The distinction is made by a minimum margin of descriptors, specific to each species (Neto et al, 2005)
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