Isoenzymatic and morphological diversity of yams (Dioscorea spp.) collected in swiddens of traditional agriculture of the Ribeira River Valley - SP / Diversidade isoenzimática e morfológica de inhame (Dioscorea spp.) coletados em roças de agricultura tradicional do Vale do Ribeira - SP

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2005

RESUMO

Traditional agriculturists of the south region of the State of São Paulo have been maintainers of a great repository of genetic diversity and knowledge regarding the management peculiarities of this diversity. The yam (Dioscorea spp.) culture is maintained and cultivated in this region in swiddens that use the system of “coivara”. This research had the objective of collecting ethnovarieties of yam in the swiddens/home gardens of the traditional agriculturists of the Ribeira River Valley, aiming at maintaining a germplasm bank for ex situ conservation at the Escola Superior de Agricultura "Luiz de Queiroz" in Piracicaba, SP and estimating the morphological and isoenzymatic diversity of yams kept in authoctone agricultural systems. Ninety-one agriculturists that still practice traditional agriculture were visited in the Ribeira River Valley, of which 45 cultivated yam. Of these, 31% cultivated this crop on itinerant swiddens and 69% in home gardens. Four yam species were found: D. trifida, D. bulbifera, D. cayenensis and D. alata. The ethnovarieties of each species were characterized with isoenzymatic markers, using polyacrilamide gels (six systems) and starch gels (one system), and with morphological markers, in a total of 24 characters. For both markers, the Jaccard similarity indices between pairs of individuals were obtained. Cluster analyses were conducted for varieties, swiddens and communities using the Jaccard similarity indices and the UPGMA method. Another parameter analyzed was the correlation between the genetic distances (isoenzymatic and morphological) and the geographic distance matrices using the Pearson correlation and Mantel test, to verify if the genetic diversity was structured in space. An analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) was carried out to verify the distribution of the variability in the different hierarchic levels: within and between the biological evolutionary units (swiddens) and cultural units (communities). Results showed that the traditional agriculturists of the Ribeira River Valley maintain a great genetic diversity, both isoenzymatic and morphological, in their swiddens and home gardens, and that this diversity is not structured in space for the four species cultivated. The AMOVA results for D. trifida, D. bulbifera and D. cayenensis showed that the isoenzymatic variability is mainly concentrated among swiddens within communities, and within swiddens for D. alata. For the morphological markers, where visual aspects are an important issue in human selection, most of the variability is concentrated among swiddens within communities for D. bulbifera and D. cayenensis, and within swiddens for D. alata and D. trifida. It is concluded that the traditional agriculturists of the Ribeira River Valley cultivate great diversity of ethnovarieties and species of Dioscorea, also possessing great knowledge concerning the management peculiarities of this crop. However, the pressures that these agriculturists are suffering may cause a loss of genetic diversity in the future. Further studies are recommended in this region to verity the damage caused by these pressures in the evolutionary processes that occur in the swiddens of the Ribeira River Valley traditional agriculturists.

ASSUNTO(S)

áreas de conservação vale do ribeira inhame agricultura tradicional diversidade genética ribeira river valley morfologia vegetal isoenzimas yam vegetal morphology genetic diversity isoenzyme traditional agriculture areas of conservation

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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