Viability of the UENF popcorn improvement program based on divergence in S1 families
Felipe Oliveira Vilela, Antonio Teixeira do Amaral Júnior, Messias Gonzaga Pereira, Rogério Figueiredo Daher, Carlos Alberto Scapim, and Cleso Antônio Patto Pacheco
With the objective of evaluating the viability of the program of recurrent selection with popcorn of the Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro carried out in Campos dos Goytacazes and Itaocara, state of Rio de Janeiro, 40 families that originated the second cycle were evalutated for 14 morphoagronomical characteristics and RAPD markers, using multivariate analysis. The analyses of variance revealed the existence of variability for most evaluated morphoagronomic traits. Clustering by Tocher’s optimization method for the morphoagronomic traits of Campos dos Goytacazes formed eight groups and 16 for those of Itaocara. For the RAPD markers 18 groups of S1 families were formed by Ward’s clustering method. The conclusion was drawn that there is genetic divergence in the selected families, which allows the inference that there is sufficient variability for the continuity of the recurrent selection process with the formation of new cycles.