ABSTRACT Corn silage is susceptible to losses through aerobic spoilage. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate increasing sweet orange essential oil levels in chemical composition, in vitro degradability, losses, fermentation parameters, microbial count, and the aerobic stability of corn silage. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design with four treatment levels: Control (CON), ensiling corn without sweet orange essential oil; 200 mg kg–1,400 mg kg–1, and 600 mg kg–1 of ensiling mass with four replicates per treatment. Sweet orange essential oil affected both the dry matter (p = 0.035) and the organic matter (p = 0.021), presenting quadratic behavior. Sweet orange essential oil did not affect (p ≥ 0.05) in vitro dry matter degradability, in vitro neutral detergent fiber degradability, or gross energy. Sweet orange essential oil had a quadratic effect (p = 0.022) on the acetic acid concentration in corn silage. There was a tendency (p = 0.097) for sweet orange essential oil to reduce the ammoniacal nitrogen linearly. The levels of sweet orange essential oil did not influence losses by gases or effluents (p ≥ 0.05). We observed no effect of sweet orange essential oil on Lactic acid-producing bacteria populations or fungi (p ≥ 0.05). Furthermore, increasing sweet orange essential oil levels decreased temperature (p = 0.02) over time but did not influence pH (p = 0.404). Sweet orange essential oil does not affect in vitro degradability, fermentation parameters, nor microbial count in corn silage. However, the 600 mg of ensiling mass increases corn silage’s acetic acid concentration and aerobic stability. spoilage Therefore composition degradability parameters CON, CON , (CON) 20 kg1400 kg 1 400 kg–1,40 kg1 60 kg– p 0.035 0035 0 035 0.021, 0021 0.021 021 0.021) behavior 0.05 005 05 energy 0.022 0022 022 0.097 0097 097 linearly 0.05. . acidproducing producing Furthermore 0.02 002 02 0.404. 0404 0.404 404 0.404) However silages s (CON 2 kg140 40 kg–1,4 6 0.03 003 03 0.0 00 0.09 009 09 040 0.40 kg14 4 0. 04 0.4

O conhecimento da variabilidade genética e da relação entre diferentes acessos de aceroleira é importante para maximizar o uso dos recursos genéticos para futuros programas de melhoramento. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a divergência genética entre 48 acessos de aceroleira, por meio de marcadores moleculares RAPD e características morfoagronômicas. Foram utilizados 25 iniciadores, possibilitando obter 108 marcadores, sendo observadas 92 marcas polimórficas. Os marcadores obtidos foram analisados, usando os métodos de otimização de Tocher e hierárquico UPGMA, que gerou um dendrograma utilizando o índice de Jaccard. Os resultados mostraram uma concordância parcial entre os métodos de agrupamentos estudados, com a formação de 14 grupos. Os acessos ACE 023 e ACE 033 foram os mais distintos, apresentando distância genética de 0,58. A análise comparativa dos agrupamentos revelou que os marcadores RAPD, associados com características morfoagronômicas, foram eficientes para a discriminação dos acessos e que houve uma variabilidade genética potencial para o programa de melhoramento genético e informações úteis, como a indicação de acessos promissores para avaliação clonal.

The knowledge on genetic variability and the relationship among different Barbados cherry accesses is important to maximize the resources for the future genetic breeding. The objective of this work was to determine the genetic variability among 48 accessions of Barbados cherry evaluated using RAPD as DNA markers and morpho-agronomical characteristics. It was used 25 primers, making it possible to obtain 108 markers and to generate 92 different polymorphic products. The obtained markers were of analyzed by the method of Tocher and UPGMA what generated a dendrogram using the Jaccard index. There was a concordance among the studied methods with the formation of 14 groups. The accessions ACE 023 and ACE 033 were the most distinct, presenting a genetic dissimilarity of 0.58. The results allowed to us to conclude that RAPD marker associated with morpho-agronomical characteristics were efficient to discriminate the genetic relationship among the accessions of Barbados cherry and the divergent accessions should be useful in the use of genetic breeding and six of them were recommended for future clonal evaluation as varieties and clonal propagation.