Intravarietal polymorphisms reveal possible common ancestor of native Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi populations in Brazil

Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi is a perennial native from Atlantic forest. It is of high ecological plasticity and is used in traditional medicine. Based on promising reports concerning its bioactivity, it was included as a species of great interest for distribution through the National Health System. A number of agronomic studies to guide its crop production are therefore underway. This study examined diversity and phylogenetic relationships among native S. terebinthifolius populations from different Brazilian ecosystems: Cerrado; sandbanks; dense rainforest; and deciduous forest. The intergenic regions rpl20-5'rps12, trnH-psbA, and trnS-trnG were sequenced from cpDNA and aligned using BLASTn. There were few fragments for comparison in GenBank and so only region trnS-trnG was informative. There were variations among and within populations with intravarietal polymorphisms and three distinct haplotypes (HpSM, HpDDO, HpNE), once populations from NE (sandbanks and rainforest) clustered together. Sequences from HpSM, HpNE, and HpDDO returned greater similarity to haplotypes A (AY928398.1), B (AY928399.1), and C (AY928400.1), respectively. A network, built by median-joining among native haplotypes and 10 available on GenBank, revealed HpSM as the origin of all other haplogroups. HpDDO showed the most mutations and was closely related to haplogroups from Argentina. While this could indicate hybridization, we believe that the polymorphisms resulted from adaptation to events such as deforestation, fire, rising temperature, and seasonal drought during the transition from Atlantic forest to Cerrado. While more detailed phylogeographical studies are needed, these results indicate eligible groups for distinct climates as an important step for prebreeding programs before field propagation

Urban ethnobotany: a case study in neighborhoods of different ages in Chapecó, Santa Catarina State

ABSTRACT The study of urban home gardens is still a current gap in knowledge in Brazilian ethnobotany researches, especially in the south of Brazil. This study was carried out to survey the species composition of plants in urban residential home gardens of two neighborhoods in the municipality of Chapecó (state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil): an older neighborhood created prior to the 1950s, and a younger neighborhood created in the decade 1970-1980. It was hypothesized that the home gardens in the older neighborhood would be larger and have greater species richness than those in the younger neighborhood. Data from 10 home gardens in each neighborhood were collected through semi-structured interviews. The plants cited by interviewees were classified as used for alimentary, medicinal and/or ornamental purposes. A total of 372 plant species (256 in the older neighborhood and 248 in the younger one) were recorded. The two neighborhoods differed in the size of their home gardens, but had similar species richness. The high species richness of plants cultivated for alimentary, medicinal and ornamental purposes in both Chapecó neighborhoods indicates that these spaces are an important resource for food, subsistence and well-being