AUTHOR=Raya Fabio Trigo , de Carvalho Lucas Miguel , José Juliana , da Cruz Larissa Prado , Almeida Rafael Leonardo , Delevatti Heliur Alves de Almeida , Silveira Neidiquele Maria , da Silva Simone Ferreira , Pissolato Maria Dolores , de Oliveira Adriele Bárbara , dos Reis Wagner José Villela , de Abreu Luís Guilherme Furlan , Gutiérrez Jesús , Carazzolle Marcelo Falsarella , Soares Ana Cristina Fermino , Nieto Sotelo Jorge , Ribeiro Rafael Vasconcelos , Pereira Gonçalo Amarante Guimarães 

TITLE=Rescuing the Brazilian Agave breeding program: morphophysiological and molecular characterization of a new germplasm

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemical Engineering

VOLUME=5

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemical-engineering/articles/10.3389/fceng.2023.1218668

DOI=10.3389/fceng.2023.1218668

ISSN=2673-2718

ABSTRACT=<p>Agaves have been a valuable resource in dryland areas for centuries, providing fibers (sisal), food, and beverages. However, the advent of synthetic fibers has led to a decrease in research on <italic>Agave</italic>, resulting in the cessation of breeding programs in Brazil. With the rise of climate change, there is renewed interest in <italic>Agave</italic> for its potential as a biofuel feedstock in semiarid regions. Since 2016, we have been collecting <italic>Agave</italic> accessions throughout the country and retrieving what is left of Brazil’s original breeding program to establish a new germplasm bank. Here, we evaluated 21 of those accessions growing in the field. We used molecular markers and morphophysiological traits to characterize the plants. Based on the <italic>Mayahuelin</italic> molecular marker, we were able to reconstruct a phylogeny for the Brazilian accessions. The morphophysiological traits explained 34.6% of the phenotypic variation in the dataset, with physiological traits such as leaf water content, effective quantum efficiency of photosystem II (Φ<sub>PSII</sub>), and specific leaf mass (SLM) as the most significant traits. Specifically, we evaluated nine <italic>Agave</italic> species and found that the physiological traits, rather than the morphological ones, were the most significant. Leaf water content was negatively correlated with specific leaf mass, which could be used as a marker for selecting cultivars with higher biomass accumulation. Interestingly, Φ<sub>PSII</sub> and chlorophyll content were negatively correlated, suggesting photochemical adaptations throughout the rosette. Molecular and phenotypic data suggest that <italic>A. amaniensis</italic>, which is frequently considered a synonym of <italic>A. sisalana</italic>, is effectively another species. Overall, this study provides valuable information on the physiological traits of Brazilian <italic>Agave</italic> accessions and is a starting point for selecting more productive and climate-resilient cultivars for biorenewables production.</p>