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Plant breeding research can benefit from a field called enviromics. This area of knowledge has gained relevance in the last two decades as it allows large-scale data processing and in-depth analysis of how the environment influences crops. A study by Embrapa Arroz e Feijão (GO) using enviromics points to new paths for the genetic progress of beans, taking into account specific climatic conditions in a given region of Brazil and growing seasons. The result of this type of research is the development of cultivars that are more adapted to the places where the legume is planted in Brazil, which can make life easier for Brazilian farmers.
Em published article in the scientific journal Field Crops Research, the authors point out limit ranges of tolerance of bean plants to stress, for each region of Brazil and growing seasons. They also suggest specific situations that can direct adaptation tests and the generation of more suitable or even “personalized” cultivars.
In the research, a study was carried out with the bean crop (carioca and black beans) considering different harvests and the use of the database of historical records of improvement fields from Embrapa and partners in the Northeast, Central-West, Southeast and South regions , which represents a coverage of 98% of the legume production area in Brazil.
In total, 424 field experiments were analyzed, originating from the bean improvement program, between 2011 and 2018, 241 with the carioca grain and 183 with the black grain, evaluating plant productivity under the impact of environmental variables such as temperature and air humidity, solar radiation and rainfall. This climate information was collected on the data platform coordinated by the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) and on the NASA Power information bank, of the North American space agency.
One of the results of this work indicates, for example, that in the Central-West Region, for the three growing seasons (summer, drought and winter), the climatic variables with the greatest impact on bean productivity are solar radiation and maximum and minimum levels in the vegetative and reproductive phases of the crop. Comparatively, in the South Region, for the two cultivation seasons (summer and drought, as there is no planting in winter) the most relevant climatic variables are the accumulated rainfall and the maximum and minimum temperatures in the same phases.
In addition, optimal values were predicted for these climatic variables that allow for better crop performance and the ranges of stress, for example heat, that bean plants can withstand in each region without damaging the crop's average yield. This opens up space for bean breeders to estimate the productive potential of bean genetic variability in favorable or adverse conditions.
Embrapa researcher Alexandre Bryan Heinemann is one of the authors of this study and comments that these results can improve the improvement of legumes by customizing new materials to regional characteristics. “One result of this work is the possibility for breeders to develop ideotypes (cultivars) adapted to different bean production environments. This will allow the development of cultivars that make the most of local climatic conditions. Thus, the material will be able to express its full genetic potential in terms of productivity”, details Heinemann.
The researcher also points out another contribution of the study carried out for plant improvement. “Envirotyping (the application of enviromics tools) allows the creation of what we can call climate-smart cultivars. For example, for the Central-West Region, when cultivating the dry season (between January and April), accumulated rainfall is a limiting factor, especially in the reproductive phase of the crop. Furthermore, from the end of March onwards, maximum and minimum temperatures drop, which lengthens the crop cycle. In our work, these climatic variations and their characterization, with the establishment of limit ranges of adaptation for plants, can serve to support the testing and selection of genotypes with the potential to generate a cultivar focused on responding satisfactorily in these conditions”, he adds. Heinemann.
The researcher considers enviromics to be a promising field of knowledge that is in full development and can contribute, mainly, to improving the decisions made by geneticists in breeding programs for the selection of new cultivars.
As the scientist reports, “this is an area of work that makes it possible to refine data for the launch of cultivars aimed not only at macro-regions, but also at specific locations, determined target environments, mainly when they combine spatial and geoprocessing data to climate analysis”.
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