Reação de clones e progênies de cajueiro à antracnose, mofo preto e oídio

Abstract

Cashew Apple tree is a tropical fruit known by its social, economic, and cultural importance in the Brazilian Northeast. However, several fungal diseases are jeopardizing the commercial exploration of this crop once they damage leaves, inflorescences, young cashews, peduncles, and cashews. Given the losses caused by them, researchers have been searching for resistant genotypes that could be incorporated into breeding programs. Recent studies showed high genetic diversity among clones’ reaction over powdery mildew, black mold, and anthracnose, allowing a better disease resistance management. Hence, this research aimed to undertake a phenotyping study of full-sibling progenies and clones for these three diseases. To achieve these goals, validated diagrammatic scales were used to evaluate regular experiments installed at Embrapa Experimental Field, in Pacajus. The data collected was submitted to cluster analysis to verify these ills separately and neural networks (Self Organizing Maps - SOM) to classify groups when all illnesses were taken together. The results showed three main groups regarding plant resilience to each one of the diseases (cluster analysis), as well as for all of them (SOM). The findings may aid farmers and researchers to consider choosing resistant clones and progenies suitable to be cultivated in the region, for the former, and further breeding studies, for the latter.