Resumo: Commercial acerola (Malpighia emarginata Sessé & Moc. ex DC.) orchards in Brazil are typically established using only one or two genotypes, making them highly susceptible to biotic and abiotic stresses. Molecular characterization of available germplasm can help identify valuable alleles for the development of new cultivars. This study aimed to assess the genetic diversity of a representative sample of acerola germplasm cultivated in Brazil using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) primers. Genomic DNA was extracted from 96 accessions conserved in Petrolina, Pernambuco state (PE) and amplified using 15 ISSR primers. The presence/absence of bands was scored to estimate allelic similarity based on the Jaccard index, and a dendrogram was constructed using the UPGMA method. Genetic variation within and between groups was quantified via analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA), using Genes, GenAlex and Cervus software. The accessions were grouped into 24 clusters, with ACO01 and MAR12 being the most divergent and Costa Rica and Flor Branca the most similar. The cluster analysis revealed substantial variation among individuals from the same region (81%), a result confirmed by AMOVA and the Shannon -Wiener diversity index. The ISSR primers effectively captured the genetic variation among the accessions studied. Given that the samples analyzed represent acerola germplasm cultivated across Brazil, these results provide valuable insights for the management of genetic resources and the development of acerola breeding programs

Ano de publicação: 2025

Tipo de publicação: Artigo de periódico

Unidade: Embrapa Semiárido

Palavras-chave: Acerola, Divergência genética, Genetic markers, Malpighia emarginata, Marcador Genético, Marcador Molecular, Marcadores ISSR, Melhoramento Genético Vegetal, Melhoramento genético, Molecular genetics, Tree breeding