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- Cassava diversity in Brazil: the case of carotenoid-rich landraces
- Nagib Nassar1, C.S. Vizzotto2, C.A. Schwartz2 and O.R. Pires Júnior2
- 1Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas,
- Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil
- 2Departamento de Ciências Fisiológicas, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas,
- Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brasil
- Corresponding author: Nagib Nassar
- E-mail: [email protected]
- Genet. Mol. Res. 6 (1): 116-121 (2007)
- Received August 8, 2006
- Accepted December 19, 2006
- Published March 22, 2007
ABSTRACT. In Brazil, the center of cassava origin, cassava landraces have acquired through their domestication a large diversity in relation to many economic traits such as high content of carotenoids and excellent palatability among other characters. One of these clones, which has been grown by indigenous Brazilian farmers and is now being maintained in the University of Brasília gene bank, showed a high level of lycopene content (5 mg/kg viz. a viz. zero in common cultivars, and 12-20 mg/kg in tomato, a lycopene-rich vegetable). A second landrace called UnB 400 had a high content of b-carotene, which reached 4 mg/kg.
Key words: Center of diversity, Landraces, Mutation accumulation, Carotenoids, Selection
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