title: Conservation implications of the mating system of the Pampa Hermosa landrace of peach palm analyzed with microsatellite markers.
abstract: Peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) is cultivated by many indigenous and traditional communities from Amazonia to Central America for its edible fruits, and is currently important for its heart-of-palm. The objective of this study was to investigate the mating system of peach palm, as this is important for conservation and breeding. Eight microsatellite loci were used to genotype 24 open-pollinated progenies from three populations of the Pampa Hermosa landrace maintained in a progeny trial for genetic improvement. Both the multi-locus outcrossing rates (0.95 to 0.99) and the progeny level multi-locus outcrossing rates (0.9 to 1.0) were high, indicating that peach palm is predominantly allogamous. The outcrossing rates among relatives were significantly different from zero (0.101 to 0.202), providing evidence for considerable biparental inbreeding within populations, probably due to farmers planting seeds of a small number of open-pollinated progenies in the same plot. The correlations of paternity estimates were low (0.051 to 0.112), suggesting a large number of pollen sources (9 to 20) participating in pollination of individual fruit bunches. Effective population size estimates suggest that current germplasm collections are insufficient for long-term ex situ conservation. As with most underutilized crops, on farm conservation is the most important component of an integrated conservation strategy.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Evolução Aplicada, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, AM, Brazil .
authors.forename: Doriane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Picanço-Rodrigues
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Evolução Aplicada, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, AM, Brazil .
authors.forename: Spartaco
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Astolfi-Filho
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética e Biologia Reprodutiva de Plantas, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM, Brazil . ; Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil .
authors.forename: Maristerra R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Lemes
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Genética e Biologia Reprodutiva de Plantas, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM, Brazil . ; Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil .
authors.forename: Rogerio
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gribel
authors.affiliation: Estação Experimental de Tupi, Instituto Florestal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil .
authors.forename: Alexandre M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Sebbenn
authors.affiliation: Coordenação de Tecnologia e Inovação, Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Manaus, AM, Brazil . ; Laboratório de Evolução Aplicada, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Manaus, AM, Brazil .
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Clement
keywords: Bactris gasipaes; bi-parental inbreeding; genetic conservation; genetic improvement; outcrossing