Molecular polymorphism in SSR loci of the RB92579 variety: perspectives for use in sugarcane improvement and industrial sector

The sugarcane variety RB92579 has excellent agricultural productivity, very low flowering, efficient water use, and a high content of sucrose. Despite its excellent agricultural productivity, the RB92579 has not been used as a direct parent in sugarcane improvement. The main goal of the present study was to investigate polymorphisms at the SSR and EST-SSR loci of the RB92579 sugarcane variety to evaluate its potential for breeding and generating new varieties and to guide better use by the industrial sector. A total of 92 samples of the RB92579 variety were collected from plants in the fourth cutting stage grown in two Brazilian states: Paraná (PR; South region) and Mato Grosso do Sul (MS; South-Central region). Four primers for DNA simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and eight primers for expressed sequence tags for simple sequence repeats (EST-SSR) were used for DNA amplification. The polymorphism occurrence in the 12 SSR loci was 28% in the PR and MS populations, with a total of 25 alleles and an average of 2.08 alleles/loci. High values for mean observed heterozygosity, a high value for genetic identity and a low level of population differentiation was found in samples from the PR and MS states. The number of polymorphisms in the EST-SSR and noncoding SSR loci as well as the genetic divergence was low. However, the high heterozygosity in both populations indicates that the RB92579 variety can be used as a parent to generate new cultivars. On the other hand, the low coefficient of genetic divergence and high identity coefficient indicate that there is genetic uniformity; therefore, there is no need for differential industrial adaptations for pretreatment or enzymatic hydrolysis of the sugarcane bagasse from RB92579 at the same cutting stage and planted in the two regions (PR and MS).