FERNANDEZ GRANDA, Lianne et al. Presence of variability ex situ and in situ Cuban germplasm of maize (Zea mays L.): Importance of complementing both approaches to conservation. []. , 32, 2, pp. 100-121. ISSN 0258-5936.

This investigation was carried out with the objectives of identifying and characterizing the races of maize, from the morphological and agronomic point of view, keeping in mind the strategy and status of conservation of the samples, as well as to establish the dynamics of races in the time, and to offer a working strategy for the evaluation and conservation of the genetic pool of maize crop in Cuba. In order to do that, they took the data of characterization of the ex situ collection, integrated by 92 accessions of the Cuban National Genebank, and 55 accessions evaluated in situ in two rural areas of Cuba. In both conservation forms, 14 characters were evaluated (nine continuous and five categorical ones) corresponding to the ear and the grain. They were analyzed using the strategy in two steps Modified Local WARD-method (MLM) for the cluster of observations, using the two types of variables simultaneously, starting from Gower´s distance as a similarity measure, with the statistical package SAS 9.0. In the accessions corresponding to the Cuban National Genebank, the Creole (Criollo) and Argentinean (Argentino) races stand out, and in the study carried out in the farms, races Tusón and Canilla were the most abundant. It was also showed that races Amarillo Reventador and Sweet (Dulce) were only present in the collection of the Cuban National Genebank. The characterized diversity found in the ex situ collection, is not entirety located in the in situ areas of the studied households, and vice versa, what suggests that it is necessary to collect in those areas, providing this way the enrichment of the ex situ collection and on the other hand to guarantee the conservation of the genetic pool of this crop in Cuba, through both forms. These elements demonstrate the necessity of the complementation in both conservation approaches.

: maize; Zea mays; ex situ and in situ conservation; WARD-MLM.

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