ISSR markers in wild species of Passiflora L. (Passifloraceae) as a tool for taxon selection in ornamental breeding.

Inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) molecular markers were developed and used to investigate interspecific genetic variation in 25 wild species of Passiflora preserved in an active germplasm bank (BAG-Passifloras); intraspecific diversity was also analyzed in P. cincinnata accessions. Of 31 primers tested, 20 identified polymorphic loci with a total of 331 bands, suggesting high polymorphism in the sample. Interspecific polymorphism was greater than intraspecific polymorphism. This is a common finding in studies of genetic variation using dominant markers. The ISSRs revealed species-specific amplification bands in 11 species; these bands ranged from 200 to 1000 bp, and they will be of use for developing SCAR markers for the identification of germplasm in further studies. The use of Jaccard's similarity coefficient to obtain a dendrogram by the UPGMA clustering method distributed the taxa into five major groups, with differences among grouping with respect to principal coordinate analysis. Despite the high cophenetic correlation coefficient (r = 0.94) of the dendrogram, taxonomic inconsistencies were observed; similar irregularities have been reported previously in studies using dominant markers. Intraspecific analysis of P. cincinnata accessions revealed a larger genetic distance between those from Bahia (P2) and from Minas Gerais (P2), indicating that both accessions have considerable potential as parents in a genetic improvement program for this species.

Antimicrobial activity of fermented Theobroma cacao pod husk extract.

Theobroma cacao L. contains more than 500 different chemical compounds some of which have been traditionally used for their antioxidant, anti-carcinogenic, immunomodulatory, vasodilatory, analgesic, and antimicrobial activities. Spontaneous aerobic fermentation of cacao husks yields a crude husk extract (CHE) with antimicrobial activity. CHE was fractioned by solvent partition with polar solvent extraction or by silica gel chromatography and a total of 12 sub-fractions were analyzed for chemical composition and bioactivity. CHE was effective against the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and the basidiomycete Moniliophthora perniciosa. Antibacterial activity was determined using 6 strains: Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Bacillus subtilis (Gram-positive) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Salmonella choleraesuis (Gram-negative). At doses up to 10 mg/mL, CHE was not effective against the Gram-positive bacteria tested but against medically important P. aeruginosa and S. choleraesuis with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 5.0 mg/mL. Sub-fractions varied widely in activity and strongest antibacterial activity was seen with CHE8 against S. choleraesuis (MIC of 1.0 mg/mL) and CHE9 against S. epidermidis (MIC of 2.5 mg/mL). All bioactive CHE fractions contained phenols, steroids, or terpenes, but no saponins. Fraction CHE9 contained flavonoids, phenolics, steroids, and terpenes, amino acids, and alkaloids, while CHE12 had the same compounds but lacked flavonoids.