Marcadores moleculares associados ao teor de fibra e divergência genética em cana-de-açúcar

Abstract

In Brazilian improvement programs of sugar cane research institutions, Saccharum spp. cultivars with specific characteristics for each sector are sought, such as the industry for the production of alcohol and sugar, cultivars for bioenergy, fodder and also for the production of handmade cachaça, where the fiber content becomes a relevant characteristic. Understanding the components related to this characteristic represents a major advance in material selection for this niche of the sugar cane commodity chain. The objective of this research was to seek, in databases, expressed sequences of protein that are related to fiber contents in sugar cane, as well as characterize Saccharum spp. genotypes, using SSR molecular markers. In this context, 11 primers were used; they were designed from the EST (expression sequence tag) of the sugar cane genome, which were tested in 21 cultivars and 2 species of sugar cane. None of the markers of the analyzed proteins could be used as a standard for the identification of the fiber content in sugar cane. For the characterization, 13 primers in 21 cultivars and 2 species of sugar cane were used. By the obtained dendrogram, a dissimilarity was observed among cultivars, characterizing them through the used primers. It was possible to detect polymorphism, which allowed to estimate more divergent genotypes existing in the studied material.