Pollen mixture, a recombination alternative in common bean breeding.

Recombination can be a limiting factor in recurrent selection programs, especially in species such as common bean where artificial hybridization reduces seed setting. Therefore, the development of new techniques to improve recombination efficiency is important. Experiments were conduted in two sowing periods, July (autumn-winter season) and February (dry growing season), using the ESAL 686 and Small White cultivars as the female parents and the Carioca, Ouro Negro and ESAL 686 or Small While cutivars as male parents, depending ot the female parent. Five technicians with different hybridization experience and two hybridization methods (with and without emasculation) were tested. A mixture of pollen from the three male parents was used in the pollinations, which were made in greenhouse. The resulting F1 seeds were sown in the field and the male parent identified by morphological markers. The greatest pollination success (68%) occurred in the autumn-winter season without emasculation. It was also observed that the technicians differed in efficiency, but no method x technician interaction was detected. The pollen mixture was efficient to improve recombination

CISTACANTOS DE GIGANTORHYNCHUS ECHINODISCUS (ACANTHOCEPHALA, GIGANTORHYNCHIDAE), EN TERMITAS NEOTROPICALES (ISOPTERA, TERMITIDAE)

Specimens of Labiotermes emersoni (Araujo, 1954) and Orthognathotermes heberi Raw & Egler, 1985, were collected at Parque Nacional da Serra da Canastra, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Soldiers of the two species were suspected to carry larval acanthocephalan parasites due to different sizes and shape of their heads and because some specimens had a conspicuous, cylindrical, whitish 'body' in the hemocoel, around the digestive tract in the abdomen. The termites showed shape alteration and light pigmentation dystrophy of the heads induced by the larval acanthocephalans. These alterations were documented photographically and the cystacanths described. The encysted juveniles removed from the hemocoel of infected soldier termites and processed accordingly, were determined as Gigantorhynchus echinodiscus (Diesing, 1851). The proboscis had the typical cylindrical shape and the characteristic two distal circles of large hooks (6+12), covered with small, almost rootless spines, and a very short neck. This is the first record from Brazil of any species of termites infected with acanthocephalans of the genus Gigantorhynchus Hamann, 1892 and the first record of G. echinodiscus cystacanths infecting the intermediate host.Los especímenes de Labiotermes emersoni (Araujo, 1954) y Orthognathotermes heberi Raw & Egler, 1985, se colectaron en el Parque Nacional de Serra da Canastra, Estado de Minas Gerais, Brasil. Se sospechaba que soldados de las dos especies eran portadores de larvas de acantocéfalos parásitos debido a diferentes tamaños y formas de la cabeza, además de un “cuerpo” blanquecino, cilíndrico visible en el hemocele de algunos ejemplares, alrededor del tubo digestivo en el abdomen. Los termitas mostraron alteración de forma y leve distrofia de pigmentación en sus cabezas inducidas por los acantocéfalos larvales. Estas alteraciones se documentaron fotográficamente y se describen los cistacantos. Las formas juveniles enquistadas retiradas del hemocele de soldados infectados se identificaron como Gigantorhynchus echinodiscus (Diesing, 1851). Los probóscides tenían la típica forma cilíndrica y los característicos dos círculos distales de grandes ganchos (6+12), cubiertos de pequenas espinas, casi sin raíces y un cuello muy corto. Este es el primer registro de dos especies de termitas infectadas por acantocéfalos del género Gigantorhynchus Hamann, 1892 y el primero registro de cistacantos de G. echinodiscus infectando el hospedero intermediário

Systematics of Palicoureeae (Rubiaceae): recent advances in Brazilian groups

Palicoureeae (Rubiaceae) has its centre of diversity in the neotropics and comprises about 1500 species. Two genera with great diversity considering the Brazilian Flora are Palicourea Aubl. and Rudgea Salisb. with ca 170 and 70 species, respectively. These numbers are still underestimated, especially because several species of Psychotria L. subgenus Heteropsychotria Steyerm. need to be transferred to Palicourea, and there are several undescribed species of Rudgea. Some of our recent studies focused on resolving some taxonomic gaps and phylogenetic questions with these genera. Considering Palicourea, phylogenetic analyses are being conducted with sections Codonocalyx, Solenocalyx, and Suteria, which include 15 species of Atlantic Forest. The monophyly of sections is being tested using molecular markers. Considering Rudgea, we are investigating its diversity in the Northeast region of Brazil, trying to answer how many species occur in the region and how climatic changes may affect its distribution. Besides, the domatia of Rudgea are also being investigated, since these structures have an important taxonomic value, but its description is not very clear in the literature. These studies are being conducted with field work, especially in eastern Brazil, exsiccatae analyses, mostly from Brazilian herbaria, and from images of digital herbaria. The phylogenetic analyses used rps16, psbA-trnH, trnL-F, and ITS markers, and were conducted using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. Regarding the phylogenetic inference of Palicourea, the preliminary results showed that Codonocalyx, Solenocalyx, and Suteria do not have molecular support to be sustained as monophyletic taxa. Regarding the diversity of Rudgea, there are at least 22 (~31% of the total) species in Northeast Brazil, with 18 occurring in the state of Bahia. However, there are 12 uncertain taxa still being analysed. Finally, a new proposal to classify the domatia of Rudgea is being carried out, to accommodate variation and intermediate types of domatia. Acknowledgments: CAPES, FAPES, and FAPESP

Efeito da condição corporal e da ingestão alimentar sobre a resposta superovulatória e produção embrionária em novilhas Nelore.

Edição dos resumos do XXI Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Embryo Technology Society (SBTE), Salvador, BA, ago. 2007

Generation of Trichoderma harzianum with pyr4 auxotrophic marker by using the CRISPR/Cas9 system.

Abstract Trichoderma harzianum is a filamentous fungus used as a biological control agent for agricultural pests. Genes of this microorganism have been studied, and their applications are patented for use in biofungicides and plant breeding strategies. Gene editing technologies would be of great importance for genetic characterization of this species, but have not yet been reported. This work describes mutants obtained with an auxotrophic marker in this species using the CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats)/ Cas (CRISPR-associated) system. For this, sequences for a guide RNA and Cas9 overexpression were inserted via biolistics, and the sequencing approach confirmed deletions and insertions at the pyr4 gene. Phenotypic characterization demonstrated a reduction in the growth of mutants in the absence of uridine, as well as resistance to 5-fluorotic acid. In addition, the gene disruption did not reduce mycoparasitc activity against phytopathogens. Thus, target disruption of the pyr4 gene in T. harzianum using the CRISPR/Cas9 system was demonstrated, and it was also shown that endogenous expression of the system did not interfere with the biological control activity of pathogens. This work is the first report of CRISPR Cas9-based editing in this biocontrol species, and the mutants expressing Cas9 have potential for the generation of useful technologies in agricultural biotechnology

Using online databases to produce comprehensive accounts of the vascular plants from the Brazilian protected areas: The Parque Nacional do Itatiaia as a case study.

Brazil is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, with about 37,000 species of land plants. Part of this biodiversity is within protected areas. The development of online databases in the last years greatly improved the available biodiversity data. However, the existing databases do not provide information about the protected areas in which individual plant species occur. The lack of such information is a crucial gap for conservation actions. This study aimed to show how the information captured from online databases, cleaned by a protocol and verified by taxonomists allowed us to obtain a comprehensive list of the vascular plant species from the "Parque Nacional do Itatiaia", the first national park founded in Brazil. All existing records in the online database JABOT (15,100 vouchers) were downloaded, resulting in 11,783 vouchers identified at the species level. Overall, we documented 2,316 species belonging to 176 families and 837 genera of vascular plants in the "Parque Nacional do Itatiaia". Considering the whole vascular flora, 2,238 species are native and 78 are non-native