Relationship between fruit phenotypes and domestication in hexaploid populations of biribá () in Brazilian Amazonia.

Background: Biribá ( Jacq.) is a fruit tree domesticated in Amazonia and has polyploid populations. The species presents ample phenotypic variation in fruit characteristics, including weight (100-4,000 g) and differences in carpel protrusions.

Understanding the Technical-Scientific Gaps of Underutilized Tropical Species: The Case of Kunth.

The extraction and commercialization of palm hearts is the most profitable activity involving the peach palm ), while consumption of its fruits is limited to Amazonian communities. The excessive attention paid to the implementation of germplasm banks contributed to the lack of development of high-performance varieties, limiting the production and consumption of peach palm fruits and by-products. In addition, with the fragmentation of the Amazonian rainforest, wild populations are in danger of extinction.

The complete plastid genome of Bactris riparia (Arecaceae) and a comparative analysis in Bactridinae (Cocoseae, Arecaceae).

Here we sequenced and characterized the complete plastome of Bactris riparia, a species closely related to B. gasipaes and widely distributed in Western Amazonia. We performed a comparative genomic analysis with B.

Maize dispersal patterns associated with different types of endosperm and migration of indigenous groups in lowland South America.

Background And Aims: The lowlands of South America appear to be remarkably important in the evolutionary history of maize, due to new evidence that suggests that maize dispersed from Mexico and arrived in this region in a state of partial domestication. This study aimed to identify dispersal patterns of maize genetic diversity in this part of the continent.

Methods: A total of 170 maize accessions were characterized with 4398 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and analysed to determine if maize dispersal was associated with types of endosperm and indigenous language families.

The plastome sequence of Bactris gasipaes and evolutionary analysis in tribe Cocoseae (Arecaceae).

The family Arecaceae is distributed throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Among the five subfamilies, Arecoideae is the most species-rich and still contains some ambiguous inter-generic relationships, such as those within subtribes Attaleinae and Bactridineae. The hypervariable regions of plastid genomes (plastomes) are interesting tools to clarify unresolved phylogenetic relationships.

Tropical Trees as Time Capsules of Anthropogenic Activity.

After the ice caps, tropical forests are globally the most threatened terrestrial environments. Modern trees are not just witnesses to growing contemporary threats but also legacies of past human activity. Here, we review the use of dendrochronology, radiocarbon analysis, stable isotope analysis, and DNA analysis to examine ancient tree management.

Highly structured genetic diversity of Bixa orellana var. urucurana, the wild ancestor of annatto, in Brazilian Amazonia.

Annatto (Bixa orellana L.) is a tropical American crop, commercially valuable due to its application in the food and cosmetics industries as a natural dye. The wild ancestor of cultivated annatto is B.

Local ecological knowledge concerning the invasion of Amerindian lands in the northern Brazilian Amazon by Acacia mangium (Willd.).

Introduction: Invasive plants can impact biodiversity as well as the lives of native human populations. Natural ecosystems represent sources of natural resources essential for the subsistence and socio-cultural continuity of these social groups. Approximately 30,000 ha of Acacia mangium were planted for commercial purposes in savanna areas surrounding indigenous lands in Roraima State, Brazil, at the end of the 1990s.

Response to Comment on "Persistent effects of pre-Columbian plant domestication on Amazonian forest composition".

McMichael state that we overlooked the effects of post-Columbian human activities in shaping current floristic patterns in Amazonian forests. We formally show that post-Columbian human influences on Amazonian forests are indeed important, but they have played a smaller role when compared to the persistent effects of pre-Columbian human activities on current forest composition.

Convergent adaptations: bitter manioc cultivation systems in fertile anthropogenic dark earths and floodplain soils in Central Amazonia.

Shifting cultivation in the humid tropics is incredibly diverse, yet research tends to focus on one type: long-fallow shifting cultivation. While it is a typical adaptation to the highly-weathered nutrient-poor soils of the Amazonian terra firme, fertile environments in the region offer opportunities for agricultural intensification. We hypothesized that Amazonian people have developed divergent bitter manioc cultivation systems as adaptations to the properties of different soils.