Development of a base population for recurrent selection in yellow passion fruit using selection indexes

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate selection indexes to identify parents to be used in the recurrent selection of yellow passion fruit. Forty‑three germplasm accessions were evaluated for 18 agronomic traits, from which productivity, fruit mass, total soluble solids, pulp yield and resistance to diseases were considered as the primary ones. Direct selection, genotype‑ideotype distance index, Smith & Hazel index and the sum of ranks of Mulamba & Mock were the selection strategies evaluated. The means for most of the main traits, and their heritability and amplitude values indicated the possibility to obtain genetic gains by selection. High genetic gains were achieved by direct selection, but with undesirable losses in other important traits. Using the genetic standard deviation as economic weight, the sum of ranks selection index made possible balanced predicted gains for the 18 traits. The genetic gains ranged from 2.47 to 10.33%, for productivity and pulp yield, respectively, and there was a severity reduction in most of the evaluated diseases. The utilization of selection indexes for choosing parentals with wide genetic basis to be used in recurrent selection programs of yellow passion fruit is a viable alternative, even when undesirable correlations are present.