GENETIC VARIABILITY OF BUSHY CASHEW (Anacardium humile ST. HILL.) THROUGH RAPD MARKERS

Native from the Brazilian cerrado and showing high morphological variability for fruit and size, the bushy cashew (Anacardium humile St. Hill.) produce fruits that are widely accepted by the local population, that are attracted because of its peculiar characteristics like size, unique flavor and potential for sustainable use by producers and industry. The limited production of seeds, caused by low pollination and high animal and insect predatory activity, makes the species propagation more difficult. The knowledge of the genetic variability of the bushy cashew is important to maximize the use of its genetic resources to future programs of improvement and conservation of the species. In this report, the genetic variability of 122 accesses of A. humile coming from 11 cities (origin) from the Cerrado of the states of Goias and Mato Grosso was quantified through RAPD markers. The genetic similarities were estimated from the binary matrix, being processed cluster analysis and graphic dispersion from the distance matrix. The primers with bigger expression were OPA11 and 08. The ten primers used generated 157 bands, being 156 polymorphic (99%), with an average of 5.6 bands/primer. It was detected a great variability in the towns, being the polymorphism higher than 90%, except the ones originated from Jatai-GO. The distance between the accesses ranged from 0.138 to 0.561, with an average of 0.370, being the lowest values registered between the accessions of Mineiros-GO and Serranopolis-GO. The accessions of Caiaponia-GO and Santo Antonio do Descoberto-GO were the most distant genetically. The total dissimilarity between the accesses ranged from 0.103 to 0.796, with averages of 0.390. The accesses 87 and 114 from Serranopolis-GO and Santo Antonio do Descoberto-GO, respectively, were the most distant genetically, showing the importance of these origins in the enrichment of the germplasm bank of the specie.