Aspectos etnobotânicos e moleculares para delinear estratégias de conservação de palmeiras

Abstract

The species of the Arecaceae family have important social, environmental, and economic value, and are widely used for food production and used in the manufacture of decorative utensils. Advances in knowledge and sustainable use of genetic resources are essential to guarantee the conservation of these species. The general objective was to characterize the knowledge shared by participants of the Butia Palm Groves Network and the genetic variation associated with Butia and other species of the Arecales order, as a contribution to the elaboration of palm conservation strategies. In the ethnobotanical study, key participants of the Butia Palm Groves Network who are enthusiasts of conservation through the use of Butia palm and work directly with these species in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina, were interviewed. Sixteen uses were cited for butiás, with emphasis on the consumption of fresh fruit, liqueur with the fruits and juices. The activities associated with the Butia palm groves ecosystems were tourism and livestock. The strategies for the conservation of genetic resources that were indicated by the interviewees reinforce the importance of partnerships between private initiatives and public institutions, together with public policies. Respondents highlighted the importance of conservation through the use of these genetic resources. To integrate the understanding of the species of Arecaceae, the quantity, distribution and organization of plastid Simple Repeat Sequences (SSRs) were detected in 52 species of the order Arecales. These genomes were analyzed to identify the position of the SSR sequences, an average of 76 pairs of primers were generated for each species evaluated, aiming at the transferability of molecular markers. Polymorphisms were observed in these SSRs and dissimilarities were evaluated. A higher frequency of mononucleotide repetitions was observed in intergenic regions. The dissimilarity analysis of cpSSR showed that mono and trinucleotides were highly dissimilar to each other, reflecting the great abundance of this type of SSRs in plastids. Phylogenetic relationships between species of the genus Butia were identified by analyzing sequences of WRKY transcription factors with different methodologies in bioinformatics. The WRKY sequences used in this work are available from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). There was variation in the clustering patterns between the different WRKY regions (2, 6, 7, 12, 16, 19, 21), and the species were not always clustered due to their morphological similarity. The results reinforce the importance of studies of this order to clarify the phylogenetic origin of this genus. The advances in knowledge generated by this work provide subsidies to propose the conservation of species of the Arecaceae family, especially the genus Butia. These studies are important to understand the phylogeny of Butia, and seek to clarify the evolution of this genus, contributing with the necessary information for the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources.