In situ conservation of Pityrocarpa moniliformis (Benth.) Luckow & R. W. Jobson for selection of matrices trees
forest seed, molecular marker, seed quality, genetic diversity, seed production
Pityrocarpa moniliformis (Benth.) Luckow & RW Jobson (Fabaceae) is a tree species that has social, ecological and economic potential for the Northeast of Brazil, with several uses for timber and non-timber, conservation and development of semi-arid regions. The objective of this work was to select P. moniliformis matrices for the production of quality seeds and in situ conservation, evaluating the genetic diversity with the use of molecular markers Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR), and seed biometry by digital imaging for studies of genetic divergence. In Chapter 01, 28 ISSR molecular markers were tested, evaluating the total number of loci, polymorphism rate and content value of the polymorphic information (PIC). Seven primers were selected, which provided 74 loci, 82% polymorphism and PIC of 0.344. Therefore, the molecular markers ISSR (UBC 827, 840, 844, 857, 859, 860 and 873) were selected for genetic diversity studies of P. moniliformis. In Chapter 02, we performed the biometric of the seeds of 33 lots by means of digital image processing, with analysis of the descriptive statistics, main components, and correlation between Euclidean distance and genetic similarity of trees with the use of molecular markers ISSR. The digital image processing was efficient in gauging and detecting biometric differences between seed lots, which have different morphological and biometric aspects due to genetic differences between P. moniliformis trees. In chapter 03, seeds of 44 trees were submitted to quality determination and genetic diversity for selected matrices and progenies. 77% and 43% of the trees produced seeds with germination higher than 50% and 70%, respectively. The selected progenies represent 64.4% of the source of total variation in the loci, and only 35.6% are due to variation between matrices. The P. moniliformis trees produce seeds with different levels of quality, being selected as trees producing seeds of high and medium physiological quality, eleven and fifteen matrices, respectively.