MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION AT INTER AND INFRASESPECIFIC LEVEL IN Sechium spp.

Abstract

The origin of variation is addressed from the perspective of the domestication process and the influence of the environment, cultures and production systems as entities that generate variants in chayote (Sechium edule (Jacq.) Sw), whose morphological variation is dynamic and evolutionary process is continuous; and this is attributed both to the consumer and to climate change, the pressure that generates variants of anthropocentric interest and adaptation to new environments or conditions. A series of inter-specific crosses were carried out between the wild types: S. edule, S. compositum and S. chinantlense, showing that the morphological variation in chayote is dynamic and its evolutionary
process is continuous, proof of this is that the wild, semi-domesticated and domesticated variants coexist and are crossbreeding naturally, thus promoting new variants