The hybrid populations of peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) have accumulated genetic variability from adjacent landraces, which is expected to increase their variability. To test this hypothesis, 176 plants maintained in the peach palm Germplasm Bank at INPA, including four hybrid populations [Belém (n=26); Manaus (n=38); Iquitos, Peru (n=41); Yurimáguas, Peru (n=41)], two wild populations (B. gasipaes variet...
Amazonia is a major world centre of plant domestication, but the genetics of domestication remains unclear for most Amazonian crops. Manioc (Manihot esculenta) is the most important staple food crop that originated in this region. Although manioc is relatively well-studied, little is known about the diversification of bitter and sweet landraces and how they were dispersed across Amazonia. We evaluated single nu...
Molecular analyses are providing new elements to decipher the origin, domestication and dispersal of native Amazonian crops in an expanding archaeological context. Solid molecular data are available for manioc (Manihot esculenta), cacao (Theobroma cacao), pineapple (Ananas comosus), peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) and guaraná (Paullinia cupana), while hot peppers (Capsicum spp.), inga (Inga edulis), Brazil nut (B...
Although originally domesticated for its fruit, exploitation of the peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) in the production of gourmet heart-of-palm has also become an important activity, hence the need for improved material for large-scale production, on employing the Pampa Hermosa landrace as the seed source. In this study 11 microsatellite markers were used to evaluate genetic divergence among 96 elite plants ...
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 thr...
Peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) is a Neotropical palm domesticated by Native Americans. Its domestication resulted in a set of landraces (var. gasipaes), some with very starchy fruit used for fermentation, others with an equilibrium of starch and oil used as snacks. Which of the three wild types (var. chichagui) was involved and where the domestication process began are unclear, with three hypotheses under ...
Background and Aims Amazonia is a major world centre of plant domestication, but little is known about how the crops were dispersed across the region. Manioc (Manihot esculenta) was domesticated in the south-western Amazon basin, and is the most important staple food crop that originated in Amazonia. Current contrasting distributions may reflect distinct histories of dispersal of bitter and sweet manioc landrac...