Peach Palm - Genomics of Cultivated Palms - page 72

the Bactris genus as monophyletic. Wild populations of B. gasipaes were found
genetically similar to B. riparia from the study [10] .
7.3 Biochemical and Molecular Markers in Peach Palm
Allozyme [11] , RAPD (as cited in Refs. [3,12,13] ), AFLP [14,15] , and SSR [16-20]
markers were used to understand the genetic diversity and relationship among lan-
draces, germplasm accessions, and wild populations of peach palm. Table 7.1 lists
the details of the results of the studies on biochemical and molecular marker-aided
diversity in Bactris .
Bactris gasipaes is classified into two forms: B. gasipaes var. gasipaes , the
domesticated type, and B. gasipaes var. chichagui , the ancestral wild type. Plants
of wild and cultivated forms of Bactris gasipaes are considered as conspecific
[21] . There are three types within the wild type, based on fruit size ( 21 , as cited in
Ref. [22] ).
A support vector machine (SVM)-based algorithm and its software are capable of
identifying the landraces of the peach palm, using data of 89 haplotypes of 12 RAPD
primers [12] . Two AFLP primer combinations, EcoRI-AAC/MseI-CCC and EcoR1-
ACA/MseI-CTG, gave more than 64 polymorphic bands each. Eighteen important
microsatellite loci were developed at CIARD France, with cross-amplification ability
in Astrocarym and Elaeis [19] . Another 18 SSR loci were developed [16] at CIAT,
Columbia, for peach palm, some of which can also amplify other species of Bactris .
Microsatellite variation ( Table 7.2 ) also aided in understanding genetic differenti-
ation [15,17] ; gene flow, origin, and migration routes [13] ; genetic diversity and phy-
logenetic relationship among Bactris and its landraces; and wild types [17,18] and
their hybrid intermediate forms [18] . High gene flow was seen among the landraces
of Central America. But the movement of genes was low between the landraces of
Amazon and Central America. Rodrigues, Filho, and Clement [13] also demonstrate
the origin of southwestern Amazonian landraces that moved northeast either via a
northeast direction (Para landrace) or northwest along the Andes through (Pampa
Hermosa and Putumayo landraces) western Amazon up to Central America (Utilis
landrace) [13] . South and north extremes of western Ecuador [17] are occupied by
wild and cultivated Bactris forms, respectively [17] . Fruit production of cultivated
plants is double that of wild plants; intermediate-sized fruits and mixed character-
istics are noticed at sympatry of wild and cultivated in northwestern Ecuador [18] .
SSR markers provided a method to interpret methods of sourcing seed, monitor
changes in measures of genetic diversity in recipient populations over time, and scale
the way the migration takes place [20] . Many wild relatives of several native South
American crops are located in the Arc of Fire. Many peach palm populations suffer
genetic erosion at the Arc of Fire by disturbances in the forests and could be saved
by in situ conservation [22] strategies.