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The Sweet Passion Fruit (Passiflora alata) Crop: Genetic and Phenotypic Parameter Estimates and QTL Mapping for Fruit Traits

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Abstract

Despite their economic importance, some tropical crop species are largely neglected when it comes to conducting genetic studies characterizing target traits for breeding. Herein, genetic and phenotypic parameters as well quantitative trait loci (QTL) are described for the first time in a full-sib progeny of sweet passion fruit (Passiflora alata). A hundred F1 individuals were evaluated in two locations for seven fruit traits: diameter of fruit (DF, in mm), length of fruit (LF, in mm), weight of fruit (WF, in g), thickness of fruit skin (TS, in mm), weight of fruit skin (WS, in g), weight of fruit pulp (WP, in g) and soluble solids (SS, in °Brix). Mixed models fitted complex, unstructured genetic variance-covariance matrices for all traits in phenotypic analysis. Because of important genetic correlations among skin and pulp traits, multiplicative index selection to select the most promising individuals was successfully applied. A previously reported integrated map supported composite interval mapping (CIM) analyses. In total, we found 22 QTLs mapped in seven out of nine linkage groups. Heritabilities (from 59.8 % to 82.7 %) and proportion of phenotypic variance explained by the QTLs (from 42.0 % to 64.3 %) were comparable for each trait. Principal component analysis on TS, WS and WP showed that the first two principal components (PCs) accounted for 93.6 % of the total variability. CIM analyses on these two PCs revealed five putative QTLs controlling variation for these three traits simultaneously. Thus, genetic improvement for sweet passion fruit should be based on correlations between traits and QTL-related information can be a useful tool.

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Abbreviations

AFLP:

Amplified fragment length polymorphism

AIC:

Akaike information criterion

BIC:

Bayesian information criterion

CIM:

Composite interval mapping

DF:

Diameter of fruit

GEI:

Genotype-environment interaction

LF:

Length of fruit

LG:

Linkage groups

LOD:

Logarithm of the odds

MI:

Multiplicative index

PC:

Principal component

PCA:

Principal component analysis

QTL:

Quantitative trait loci

REML:

Restricted maximum likelihood

RS:

Response to selection

RS%:

Response to selection in percentage

SD:

Selection differential

SS:

Total soluble solids

TS:

Thickness of fruit skin

VCOV:

Variance-covariance

WF:

Weight of fruit

WP:

Weight of fruit pulp

WS:

Weight of fruit skin

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP, Brazil) for its financial support and the fellowships awarded to GSP, MMP and RG. Our thanks also to the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq, Brazil) for the fellowships awarded to PhD students (ESN and LDCL) and researchers (IOG, AAFG and MLCV). Finally, we would also like to thank Carlos A. de Oliveira for his excellent technical assistance, Mr. H. Borgonove for providing an experimental area on his private farm at Descalvado, Brazil and Mr. Steve Simmons for proofreading the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Escola Superior de Agricultura “Luiz de Queiroz”, Departamento de Genética, Universidade de São Paulo, Piracicaba, 13418-900, Brazil

    Guilherme da Silva Pereira, Larissa Di Cassia Laperuta, Endson Santana Nunes, Lourdes Chavarría, Isaías Olívio Geraldi, Antonio Augusto Franco Garcia & Maria Lucia Carneiro Vieira

  2. Embrapa Milho e Sorgo, Sete Lagoas, 35701-970, Brazil

    Maria Marta Pastina

  3. Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Araras, 13565-905, Brazil

    Rodrigo Gazaffi

Authors
  1. Guilherme da Silva Pereira
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  2. Larissa Di Cassia Laperuta
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  3. Endson Santana Nunes
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  4. Lourdes Chavarría
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  5. Maria Marta Pastina
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  6. Rodrigo Gazaffi
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  7. Isaías Olívio Geraldi
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  8. Antonio Augusto Franco Garcia
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  9. Maria Lucia Carneiro Vieira
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Lucia Carneiro Vieira.

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Additional information

Communicated by: Yann-Rong Lin

Electronic supplementary material

12042_2016_9181_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Logarithm of the odds ratio (LOD) score profiles of composite interval mapping (CIM) for seven fruit traits in a sweet passion fruit full-sib progeny. LOD score profiles of CIM for the first (PC1) and second (PC2) principal components on TS, WS and WP are also given. Numbers above the peaks indicate QTLs declared based on the threshold (‘thr’) values obtained from permutation for each trait (TIFF 848 kb)

12042_2016_9181_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Biplot of the first (PC1) and second (PC2) principal components on thickness of fruit skin (TS, in mm), weight of fruit skin (WS, in g), and weight of fruit pulp (WP, in g) in a sweet passion fruit full-sib population. Numbers indicate the rank of full-sibs selected by multiplicative index selection; plus signs (+) indicate the remaining (non-selected) full-sibs (TIFF 396 kb)

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da Silva Pereira, G., Di Cassia Laperuta, L., Nunes, E.S. et al. The Sweet Passion Fruit (Passiflora alata) Crop: Genetic and Phenotypic Parameter Estimates and QTL Mapping for Fruit Traits. Tropical Plant Biol. 10, 18–29 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12042-016-9181-4

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