Rescuing the Brazilian Agave breeding program: morphophysiological and molecular characterization of a new germplasm

Frontiers in Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Jesús Gutiérrez¹  Jorge Nieto Sotelo¹  Ana Cristina Fermino Soares²  Gonçalo Amarante Guimarães Pereira³  Juliana José³  Luís Guilherme Furlan de Abreu³  Wagner José Villela dos Reis³  Adriele Bárbara de Oliveira³  Marcelo Falsarella Carazzolle³  Fabio Trigo Raya⁴  Lucas Miguel de Carvalho⁵  Rafael Vasconcelos Ribeiro⁵  Neidiquele Maria Silveira⁵  Heliur Alves de Almeida Delevatti⁵  Maria Dolores Pissolato⁵  Simone Ferreira da Silva⁵  Larissa Prado da Cruz⁵  Rafael Leonardo Almeida⁵ 

[1]Botanical Garden, Institute of Biology, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico

[2]Center of Agricultural, Environmental and Biological Sciences, Federal University of Recôncavo of Bahia (UFRB), Cruz das Almas, Brazil

[3]Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, Laboratory of Genomics and BioEnergy (LGE), University of Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas, Brazil

[4]Department of Genetics, Evolution, Microbiology and Immunology, Laboratory of Genomics and BioEnergy (LGE), University of Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas, Brazil

[5]Department of Plant Biology, Laboratory of Crop Physiology (LCroP), University of Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas, Brazil

[6]Department of Plant Biology, Laboratory of Crop Physiology (LCroP), University of Campinas (Unicamp), Campinas, Brazil

关键词: Agave;    Biofuels;    genetic resources;    natural fibers;    sisal;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fceng.2023.1218668

 received in 2023-05-07, accepted in 2023-08-30,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Agaves have been a valuable resource in dryland areas for centuries, providing fibers (sisal), food, and beverages. However, the advent of synthetic fibers has led to a decrease in research on Agave, resulting in the cessation of breeding programs in Brazil. With the rise of climate change, there is renewed interest in Agave for its potential as a biofuel feedstock in semiarid regions. Since 2016, we have been collecting Agave accessions throughout the country and retrieving what is left of Brazil’s original breeding program to establish a new germplasm bank. Here, we evaluated 21 of those accessions growing in the field. We used molecular markers and morphophysiological traits to characterize the plants. Based on the Mayahuelin molecular marker, we were able to reconstruct a phylogeny for the Brazilian accessions. The morphophysiological traits explained 34.6% of the phenotypic variation in the dataset, with physiological traits such as leaf water content, effective quantum efficiency of photosystem II (ΦPSII), and specific leaf mass (SLM) as the most significant traits. Specifically, we evaluated nine Agave species and found that the physiological traits, rather than the morphological ones, were the most significant. Leaf water content was negatively correlated with specific leaf mass, which could be used as a marker for selecting cultivars with higher biomass accumulation. Interestingly, ΦPSII and chlorophyll content were negatively correlated, suggesting photochemical adaptations throughout the rosette. Molecular and phenotypic data suggest that A. amaniensis, which is frequently considered a synonym of A. sisalana, is effectively another species. Overall, this study provides valuable information on the physiological traits of Brazilian Agave accessions and is a starting point for selecting more productive and climate-resilient cultivars for biorenewables production.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Raya, de Carvalho, José, da Cruz, Almeida, Delevatti, Silveira, da Silva, Pissolato, de Oliveira, dos Reis, de Abreu, Gutiérrez, Carazzolle, Soares, Nieto Sotelo, Ribeiro and Pereira.