The jabuticaba tree is a native plant from South America and has undergone genetic erosion due to agricultural expansion and deforestation. The present study aimed to investigate: a) the reproductive system of four species of Myrciaria spp. (Myrciaria cauliflora, M. jaboticaba, M. coronata and M. trunciflora); b) the compatibility of cross breeding using interspecific cross-pollination treatments between M. trunciflora x M. cauliflora and M. jaboticaba x M. coronata in order to identify possible postzygotic reproductive isolation mechanisms, and c) relate the genetic distance of these species and 14 other taxa preserved ex situ, by RAPD molecular markers. The reproductive treatments showed that jaboticaba are self-compatible species and no apomixis was found in these species. The bi-directional cross-pollinations between M. trunciflora x M. cauliflora, and between M. jaboticaba x M. coronata, generated fruit production that ranged from 22 to 27%, and their seeds produced healthy plants, demonstrating the lack of genetic barriers between these species, as well as immature fruit dropping. Such compatibility of interbreeding can be explored in genetic improvements aimed at the transfer of traits of interest in agronomically superior genotypes. A low degree of genetic differentiation was found among the different taxa, suggesting that the genetic similarity observed is not compatible with the morphological similarity and the main taxonomic characters are polymorphic within the genus.
compatibility; reproductive isolation; jaboticaba; RAPD
