Genetic diversity of bushy cashew (Anacardium humile A. St.-Hil.) based on characteristics of fruits

Abstract Knowledge of the genetic variability among genotypes of bushy cashew is important to establish strategies for pre-breeding and use in breeding program. The objective of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity of bushy cashew by means of the evaluation of physical, chemical and physicochemical characteristics of cashew apples and cashew nuts. The work was carried out with cashew nuts and cashew apples collected in the harvest of 2016 of genotypes in the “ex situ” biological collection of Anacardium humile A. St.-Hil. in the area of genetic resources of the Universidade Federal de Goiás - Regional Jataí. The results were submitted to descriptive analysis and multivariate analysis, estimating the mean Euclidean distance obtained from the fruiting attributes analyzed. The measure of similarity and custering of the provenances was done by the optimization algorithm of Tocher and dendrograma UPGMA. There was a coincidence of clusters, which confirms the distribution of genetic diversity of the genotypes in the germplasm bank of Anacardium humileA. St.-Hil. evaluated. The results obtained can be used for the selection of individuals of the species in future works of breeding and conservation of the specie.