Genetic divergence among progenies resulting from the crossing of groups coffee timor hybrid and Dilla & Alghe

Abstract

This study aimed to agronomically and morphologically characterize, as well as analyze the genetic divergence of Dilla & Alghe  Timor hybrid progenies of the coffee germplasm bank of Minas Gerais in Brazil to improve the breeding and management schemes of the hybrids. Forty-two morpho-agronomic traits were evaluated and the generalized Mahalanobis distance was used to quantify the genetic divergence among progenies. Tocher clustering, unweighted pair-group method using arithmetic averages (UPGMA) method and canonical variation analysis were employed as clustering strategies. The Tocher and UPGMA methods have been separated the progenies into eight and five groups, respectively. Analysis of the relative contribution of each characteristic to genetic dissimilarity highlighted the characteristics of production in liters in 2009, production notes in 2009, and average uniformity of maturation in 2009 as those that contributed most to obtaining genetic divergence. The authors observed that the first three canonical variables accounted for over 99% of the total variance observed in the full set of analyzed characteristics. High variability was observed among the 15 progenies of Dilla & Alghe  Timor hybrid progenies. The progenies MG0589 and MG0592, MG0593 and MG0589, MG0591 and MG0589, MG0589 and MG0588, MG0589 and MG0583 were the most suitable crosses for exploring the genetic variability in Dilla & Alghe  Timor hybrid generated from the germplasm bank of Minas Gerais. Through these crossovers, it is expected to get new coffee cultivars with desirable agronomic characteristics, as resistant to Pseudomonas syringae pv. garcae and some breeds of Hemileia vastatrix.