First Results From Joint Embrapa-Cirad Ananas Germplasm Collecting in Brazil and French Guyana

Genetic diversity of Cuban pineapple germplasm assessed by AFLP Markers

“…For the collection to be more representative of the broad spectrum of pineapple germplasm, it should be enriched with more cultivated and non-cultivated varieties since most of genotypes in this collection are Red Spanish or Cayenne´s cultivars. Other collections previously characterized with morphological descriptors (Leal et al 1986, Ferreira and Cabral 1993, Duval et al 1996, such as those from Brazil, Martinique and Hawaii or with molecular markers such as the Brazilian (Duval et al 2001) and the Hawaiian collections (Kato et al 2004) showed more diversity.…”

“…The most important are the collections maintained by EMBRAPA/CNPMF, in Cruz das Almas, Brazil, by CIRAD-FLHOR, in Martinique, and the USDA collection, in Hawaii. These collections have been partially characterized with morphological descriptors (Leal et al 1986, Duval and Coppens d'Eeckenbrugge 1993, Ferreira and Cabral 1993, Duval et al 1996. Cuba maintains a small but still important collection, since it represents the genetic diversity of the cultivated pineapple in that country.…”

Origin and Domestication of Native Amazonian Crops

“…North of the Amazon, it displays much greater morphological and genetic variation than in the south. In particular, many northern clones exhibit appreciable growth of the syncarp after anthesis, resulting in larger and fleshier fruit, while south of the Amazon the fruits are always small and very fibrous, and the plants show ecological specialization, being restricted to open dry habitats, from arid savannahs to cerrados [94,95].…”

“…Based on a revision of morphological [95], biochemical [98] and genetic diversity [99], Coppens d'Eeckenbrugge et al [90] and Coppens d'Eeckenbrugge and Leal [100] proposed that the north, and more specifically the Guiana shield, is also where the pineapple was domesticated. Coppens d'Eeckenbrugge and Duval [92] refined this hypothesis to take into account recent data on chloroplast DNA variation [93].…”

“…comosus diversified dramatically in western Amazonia, especially in the northwestern center of crop diversity [1] and along the lower Negro River; in both areas a great diversity of advanced cultivars was developed in the absence of wild forms [95]. The peoples of western Amazonia demonstrated brilliant horticultural and plant-breeding skills, as this region is also an important center of domestication and diversification for many other fruits [1,5].…”