UFSM XIKA FW: sugarcane cultivar for southern Brazil

In Brazil, in view of the different soil and climatic conditions of the sugarcane-producing regions, a strategy of creating small breeding programs for the crop is being used. Since 2008, the sugarcane breeding program of the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), has been developing new, better adapted and higher-yielding sugarcane cultivars for the climate conditions of the southern region of Brazil. Cultivar UFSM XIKA FW was developed at the Laboratories of Agroclimatology and Genetic Breeding and Plant Production of the UFSM, Campus Frederico Westphalen. It is the first mutation-induced sugarcane cultivar that was protected by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply, Brazil. The genotype used for mutation induction was cultivar IAC 87-3396, due to its good performance characteristics in the southern region. The mutation mechanism was induced in 2011, by immersing individual buds in a solution of the chemical mutagenic agent methyl methane sulfonate. The best genotypes were selected and tested in plant cane in 2013 and 2018 and in ratoon cane trials in 2014 and 2015. The new cultivar has a higher sugar production potential, and the mean yield of four years was 8.2 t ha-1 higher than that of the control, indicating a high yield potential.

Phenotypic variance of black oat growing in crop seasons reveals genetic effects predominance.

This work aimed to determine variance components and genetic parameters, as well as phenotypic, genetic and environmental correlations among black oat (Avena strigosa) families grown in different crop season. Seventy-six black oat families and three controls (BRS Madrugada, BRS Centauro, BRS 139 Neblina) were evaluated in two crop seasons (2016 and 2017), using families with intercalary controls experimental design. The results reveled high potential of black oat families to compose a breeding program, due to families and controls variance were similar, variance components expressed greater genetic variance origin for crop season. Panicle weight and panicle grain weight presented high heritability and, these are correlated with panicle length. Thus, these traits can be used to select superior genotypes. Divergent meteorological conditions between crop seasons expressed few variations among phenotypic, genetic and environmental correlations, and it did not alter magnitude and sense of phenotypic and genetic correlations.