Agradecimentos: We express our gratitude to Dr. Alisson Chiorato and Dr. Sérgio Carbonell of the Center of Grains and Fibers at IAC for granting us permission to collect the remaining Agave materials at the institution. Finally, we dedicate this work to Júlio Cesar Medina, Anisio Azzini, Antonio Luiz de Barros Salgado, and Dirceu Ciaramello, IAC researchers whose essential contributions were instrumental in the consolidation of sisal production in Brazil. This work was supported by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brazil (CAPES) (grant number 88882.329521/2019-01); Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) (grant number 2020/02524-0, 2019/12914-3); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)—Nexus Project: Sisal-Caatinga Integration (grant number 441625/2017-7); Brazilian Agave development program (BRAVE) (research agreements 5902/5903); Fundo De Apoio Ao Ensino, Pesquisa E Extensão—FAEPEX (grant number 2582/20), and Programa de Apoyo a Proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica (PAPIIT) from UNAM-Mexico (grant number IN222223). RR and GP are fellows of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq, Brazil) Ver menos

Abstract: Agaves have been a valuable resource in dryland areas for centuries, providing fibers (sisal), food, and beverages. However, the advent of synthetic fibers has led to a decrease in research on Agave, resulting in the cessation of breeding programs in Brazil. With the rise of climate change, there is renewed interest in Agave for its potential as a biofuel feedstock in semiarid regions. Since 2016, we have been collecting Agave accessions throughout the country and retrieving what is left of Brazil’s original breeding program to establish a new germplasm bank. Here, we evaluated 21 of those accessions growing in the field. We used molecular markers and morphophysiological traits to characterize the plants. Based on the Mayahuelin molecular marker, we were able to reconstruct a phylogeny for the Brazilian accessions. The morphophysiological traits explained 34.6% of the phenotypic variation in the dataset, with physiological traits such as leaf water content, effective quantum efficiency of photosystem II (FPSII), and specific leaf mass (SLM) as the most significant traits. Specifically, we evaluated nine Agave species and found that the physiological traits, rather than the morphological ones, were the most significant. Leaf water content was negatively correlated with specific leaf mass, which could be used as a marker for selecting cultivars with higher biomass accumulation. Interestingly, FPSII and chlorophyll content were negatively correlated, suggesting photochemical adaptations throughout the rosette. Molecular and phenotypic data suggest that A. amaniensis, which is frequently considered a synonym of A. sisalana, is effectively another species. Overall, this study provides valuable information on the physiological traits of Brazilian Agave accessions and is a starting point for selecting more productive and climate-resilient cultivars for biorenewables production Ver menos