Abstract
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a crop of high socioeconomic importance for several tropical and subtropical regions of the world. It is mainly present in small cultivated areas that unintentionally guard a large part of the species' germplasm. The present work aimed to evaluate the population structure and genetic diversity of 156 traditional sweet cassava accessions from the Western of Paraná and Midwestern regions of Santa Catarina using 29 microsatellite molecular markers. All loci included were considered polymorphic, ranging from 3.00 to 7.00, with an average of 3.93 alleles per locus, and the average value of heterozygosity (Ho) was 0.6185. The polymorphism information content (PIC) presented an amplitude that varied from 0.4887 (GA134) to 0.7041 (GA131), with an average of 0.6130, while the genetic diversity ranged from 0.5688 (GA134) to 0.7424 (GA131), with an average of 0.6751. Analysis of the population structure based on the 29 microsatellite loci demonstrate that the accessions can be separated into two distinct subpopulations - in Santa Catarina and Paraná - with some mixtures observed according to Delta K = 2 groups. The ideal number of groups was found at K = 3, a level in which accessions from Santa Catarina were divided into two subpopulations and accessions from Paraná were grouped into a unique subpopulation. The genetic variability found among the traditional sweet cassava cultivars evaluated was considered wide, and the most dissimilar groups were mostly the accessions from Toledo and Santa Catarina states, constituting a source of genes for the sweet cassava breeding programs and for the development of new sweet cassava cultivars.
Highlights
Cassava is a crop of great importance worldwide regarding aspects related to human and animal nutrition [1, 2]
Siqueira et al [30] used 9 microsatellite markers to evaluate the genetic diversity in 42 cassava accessions from several regions in Brazil and obtained an average of 5 alleles per marker
Studies conducted by Gonçalves et al [33] evaluated 51 traditional cassava accessions collected in southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil, using 20 microsatellites and found an average of 3.4 alleles per marker
Summary
Cassava is a crop of great importance worldwide regarding aspects related to human and animal nutrition [1, 2]. It belongs to the botanical family Euphorbiaceae, and the most widespread species for cultivation and human consumption is Manihot esculenta Crantz [1]. The largest global producers of cassava are Nigeria, Thailand, Brazil, Indonesia, and Congo [2]. Brazil produces an average of 23 million tons year -1, and the largest producing states are Pará, with 5 million tons year -1, followed by Paraná, with an average of 4 million tons year -1 [5]. It should be noted that these production values of cassava tuberous roots basically refer to those that are intended for industrial processing, that is, are not intended for 'in natura' consumption
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