Estabelecimento in vitro e análise da variabilidade genética de acessos de espinheira-santa (Maytenus ilicifolia) coletados no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Maytenus ilicifolia Mart. ex Reis., popularly known as espinheira-santa, is an autochthonous specie belonging to Celastraceae family. Presents high medicinal value for treatment of ulcers, chronicle gastritis, dyspepsia and indigestion. Due its medicinal importance, have been an increase of extractivism in natural populations. So, this specie is priority for conservation, to avoid the risk of genetic erosion. The tissue culture is important because allows massive production of plants free from pathogenic agents and genetically uniforms. The in vitro establishment is the first phase of the micro propagation process, where the plant material used can vary according to the finality of the work. Studies evidence that genetic flux by seeds or pollen grains, and also the environment, mainly the habitats, has the potential to improve the genetic variability of populations from one locality. The objective of this work was to establish and evaluate the capacity of in vitro multiplication of M. ilicifolia plantlet, and also analyze by AFLP the genetic variability of 20 accessions collected in different localities from Rio Grande do Sul State. For the in vitro establishment previously disinfected seeds were inoculated in three different media: MS; MS + Active Coal (1g L-1) and MS + Vermiculite. The variables analyzed were plantlet height and root length. For the molecular analysis it was tested eight primers combinations. Values of genetic similarities were calculated by Simple-matching coefficient and used to generate a similarity dendrograma by UPGMA method. The analyzed variables showed significant differences. The greater media for plantlet height (5.06 cm) and root x length (3.4 cm) were obtained in the MS medium with Vermiculite. The morphological aspect of the roots must be considered, because the roots from plantlets germinated in MS medium was very fibrous and without root hairs, differently from plantlets germinated the MS medium + Vermiculite, were presented roots adequate for absorption of nutrients from the medium culture. The eight primers generate 455 eletrophoretical profiles, obtaining 100% of polymorphism. The primers E-ACC/M-CAA, E-ACG/M-CTA and E-ACG/M-CTC presented the greater number of eletrophoretical profile, 71 each, totalizing 46.80% of the total polymorphism. Dendrograma analysis showed a high coefficient of correlation (r = 0.94), demonstrating high representativity from the data of genetic similarity and those of groupings. By AMOVA it was verified that 89.33% of the total variability happened among individuals from the same population. Based on the discussed can be concluded that the more adequate medium for the in vitro establishment is the MS medium added of Vermiculite and AFLP molecular markers allow the characterization and genetic variability estimative of M. ilicifolia populations.