SHORT COMUNICATION – Silviculture

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Floresta e Ambiente 2021; 28(2): e20180097
https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8087-FLORAM-2018-0097
ISSN 2179-8087 (online)

Genetic Variation of Trees of Caryocar brasiliense for  
Fruit Morphometric Traits
Liliana Hernández Hernández1 
Fábio Araújo dos Santos2 
Edwin Camacho Palomino3

Evandro Vagner Tambarussi4 
Cristiano Bueno Moraes1

1Universidade Federal do Tocantins, Calle Badejós, Palmas, TO, Brasil.
2Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho, Botucatu, SP, Brasil.
3Universidade Federal do Oeste do Para, Santarem, PA, Brasil.
4Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste, Irati, PR, Brasil.

This study aimed to verify the genetic variability of matrix trees of Caryocar brasiliense, best known by the popular 
name of “pequi”, in a completely random delineation, with 20 treatments (matrices), and 50 repetitions (collected 
fruits in each matrix). We have evaluated the following traits of each fruit: weight (g), diameter (cm), length (cm), 
width (cm), and thickness (cm). As results we obtained a coefficient of experimental variation (CVe(%)) that showed 
advantageous values of 2.82 to 7.80, and the genotype heritability (( (%))hg

2 (%)) of 55 to 95; both results can indicate 
favorable genetic control in the traits of the fruit. At the same time certain traits have significant genotypic and 
phenotypic correlations, which can be understood as an advantage for the improvement of the specie. In conclusion, 
we have noted that the population of Caryocar brasiliense has a high genetic variation, these results support the 
planning for genetic improvement programs.

Keywords: pre-breeding, genetic variability, fruit, pequi, Cerrado.

Caryocar brasiliense Cambess, commonly known by the 
popular name of “pequi”, is a typical native specie of the 
Brazilian Cerrado, it can be found in the states of Minas 
Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Bahía, Pará and 
Maranhão (Carvalho, 2009). It is an allogamous specie, 
with fruits rich in oils and vitamin A, which are very well 
appreciated by people and wild animals of the Brazilian cerrado  
(Collevati et al., 2001). Besides its importance, we still have 
little research on Caryocar brasiliense’s genetic variability and 
its natural populations across the Cerrado, one reason for that 
may be the great extension of this biome (Moura et al., 2013).

Many different species of the Cerrado have been reported 
as of favorable genetic variability (Ganga et al., 2009;  
Carmargo et al., 2010), this information is a good indication 
to start breeding trials. Due to the lack of information on 
various aspects of Caryocar brasiliense, progeny tests, mainly 
used to estimate genetic parameters and select individuals, are 

an important tool (Aguiar et al., 2011) to calculate the genetic 
variability of the matrices, respecting the morphological traits 
of the fruits (Ramos et al., 2015).

Over the years the “Pequi” has shown great economic and 
social potentials, however, the agricultural expansion and the 
disorderly exploitation of timber resources has threatened the 
natural populations and communities that used to depend 
on it; because of that, the need to start genetic enhancement 
studies (Giordani et al., 2012) has become essential.  
Based on all these reasons, this research aimed to study the 
genetic parameters, and analyze the genetic variability of 
matrix trees of Caryocar brasiliense through the morphometric 
traits of its fruits.

The experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm 
of the Federal University of Tocantins (UFT), campus of 
Gurupi, located under the coordinates 11° 43’5 S and 49° 04’ W,  
and at 280 meters above sea level. Accordingly to the Koppen’s 

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4490-9411
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6853-4496
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9478-5379
http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2179-8087-floram-2018-0097


Floresta e Ambiente 2021; 28(2): e20180097

2 - 3 Hernández LH, Santos FA, Palomino EC, Tambarussi EV, Moraes CB

2

classification, the climate in the region is Aw (tropical with 
dry season) and the soil is classified as a dystrophic Red-
Yellow Oxisol (Embrapa 2018). We collected 50 fruits for 
each matrix tree of C. brasiliense, with a minimum distance 
of 50 meters between individuals to avoid kinship. For 
the study of the genetic variability, we used the following 
quantitative genetic parameters: fruit weight (FW (g)), width 
(FW2 (cm)), thickness (FT (cm)), diameter (FD (cm)) and 
length (FL (cm)). The experiment was conducted in a specie’s 
natural population, under a completely randomized design,  
with 20 treatments (matrix trees) and 50 fruits per tree.

The statistical significance was evaluated in accordance 
to the likelihood ratio test (LRT), the results were analyzed 
by the SELEGEN REML / BLUP (restricted maximum 
likelihood) a statistical-genetic software (Resende, 2007) 
used for completely random delineations, expressed in 
the mathematical equation: y = Xu + Zg + Wp + e, where,  
“y” is the data vector, “u” is the general average, “g” represents 
the genotypic effects of the matrices (assumed as random), 
“p” is the plot effects (random), “e” is for the vectors of 
the effects of random errors, and the uppercase letters  
represent the matrices of incidence.

The likelihood ratio test (LRT) showed significant variance 
at 5% in the characters of FW, FL, FT, FD and FW2, indicating 
genetic variability between the materials (individuals), which 
is favorable at the time of selection (Table 1).

Table 1. Likelihood ratio test (LRT) for traits of fruits of Caryocar 
brasiliense: weight (FW), width (FW2), thickness (FT), diameter 
(FD) and length (FL).

(*) LRT Features
FW (g) FW2 (cm) FT (cm) FD (cm) FL (cm)

Fruit 81.85* 94.23* 97.34* 5.72* 12.04*
(*) LRT fruit: Reason for likelihood in fruit characters; *: significant at 5%  
of probability.

The coefficient of experimental variation (CVe (%)) has 
indicated that the adopted experimental design was adequate. 
The fruit had a weight of (7.8%), which is in accordance 
to the values found in the literature (Moura et al., 2013).  
The Genotypic inheritance, in the broad sense, ( (%))hg

2  
varied from 55% to 95%, these results indicate high genetic 
control in the morphometric traits of the fruits (Table 2).  
The selective accuracy (râa) is an important parameter for 
maximizing genetic progress, for this trait the values were 
greater than 0.50, which corroborates with Resende (2007), 
that says that râa values greater than 0.50, is ideal for a good 
accuracy in genotype selection. The value of the coefficient of 
individual additive genetic variation (CVgi (%)) varied from 
2.90% to 6.12%, and was low for the traits FW (3.88%) and 

FL (2.90%), this can indicate that the studied individuals of 
Caryocar brasiliense have genetic variability available. The 
genetic gain (Gs (%)), was of 5.56% for FW, 12.20% for FW2, 
14.33% for FT, 15.12% for FD and of 5.12% for FL. The fruit’s 
thickness (FT) was the most outstanding value. 

Table 2. Genotypic parameters for fruit weight (FW), width 
(FW2), thickness (FT), diameter (FD) and length (FL) of  
Caryocar brasiliense.

Genetic 
parameters

Features
FW (g) FW2 (cm) FT (cm) FD (cm) FL (cm)

( (%))hg
2 55 94 95 95 68

râa (%) 74 96 97 97 82
CVgi (%) 3.88 5.00 5.80 6.12 2.90
Gs (%) 5.56 12.20 14.33 15.12 5.12
CVe (%) 7.80 2.82 2.89 3 4.50
Average 15.38 2.88 2.69 2.51 3.83
Genotypic heritability in broad sense (( (%))hg

2), selective accuracy (râa %), coefficients 
of genotypic variation (CVgi (%)), genetic gain (Gs (%)), coefficient of residual 
variation (CVe(%)) and averages for each character.

The correlations can guide the selection of a set of traits 
as a total, not for each character in isolation (Vencovsky 
& Barriga, 1992). Our results showed a strong correlation 
between fruit weight (rf≥0.72), and width (rg≥0.94) (Table 3).  
The correlations between the fruit’s weight and its dimensional 
traits are interesting, specially because when selecting 
matrices that have fruits with larger transverse diameters, 
consequently it will be selected heavier fruits (more weight). 
The phenotypic correlations are useful in indirect selection, 
where gains can be made without restricting selection (Zobel &  
Talbert, 1984). The significant unfavorable correlations were 
found between fruit weight (rg≥0.87) and thickness (rf≥0.60), 
because this implies a high proportion of fruit peel, which 
in small or medium productions would result in low yield.

Table 3. Phenotypic (rf) and Genotypic (rg) correlations for fruit’s 
characteristics in matrices of Caryocar brasiliense.

*Characters FW FW2 FT FD FL
FW − 0.723** 0.599ns 0.516ns 0.546ns

FW2 0.948** − 0.712* 0.635* 0.557ns

FT 0.877** 0.952** − 0.715* 0.488ns

FD 0.454ns 0.613* 0.637* − 0.755*
FL 0.392ns 0.407ns 0.324ns 0.699* −

Phenotypic correlation (rf) above the diagonal and genetic correlations (rg) below 
the diagonal, for fruit weight (FW), width (FW2), thickness (FT), diameter (FD) 
and length (FL) of Caryocar brasiliense.

The integral maintenance of natural populations is important 
to preserve the viability of the species. The pairing system 
and the flow of the species’ genes can be altered, resulting 
in a possible fragmentation of the natural populations of 
Caryocar brasiliense, which can decrease the population 



Genetic Variation of Trees OF Caryocar brasiliense...

Floresta e Ambiente 2021; 28(2): e20180097 3

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size (Collevati et al., 2001), reduce genetic variability, and 
increase endogamy (Tambarussi et al., 2017). 

More researches aiming to study the genetic control 
of native species are necessary for the preservation and 
pre-improvement of the species (Faleiro et al., 2008).  
In conclusion, the trees of Caryocar brasiliense of the southern 
region of Tocantins has shown significant genetic variation; 
and high heritability according to the traits of its fruits, 
which has demonstrated more than sufficient potential to 
be explored in a genetic improvement program.

SUBMISSION STATUS 
Received: 28 Feb. 2018
Accepted: 24 Sep. 2019
Associate editor: Natane Miranda 

CORRESPONDENCE TO 
Liliana Hernández Hernández
Universidade Federal do Tocantins, Calle Badejós, Lote 7,  
Chacras 69/72, Zona Rural Gurupi, 77001-090, Palmas, TO, Brasil
e-mail: lilianah111@hotmail.com

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