MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF YELLOW PASSION FRUIT GENOTYPES WITH DIFFERENT YIELD AND DISEASE RESISTANCE LEVELS

Brazil is the largest passion fruit producer in the world. However, the yield is still considered low, and the cultivation of unsuitable varieties is one of the factors directly influencing this trait. As a consequence, breeding studies have been developed with the purpose of obtaining genetic materials with high yield, high fruit quality, and disease resistance. The objective of this study was to characterize and quantify the genetic variability in 18 genotypes of yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims) with different levels of yield and disease resistance, using RAPD markers. The RAPD markers were obtained from 10 decamer primers and converted into a matrix of binary data. Estimations of the genetic dissimilarities between different genotypes and cluster analysis were performed. A total of 58 markers were generated, 63.80% of which were polymorphic. The genetic distances among genotypes varied from 0.040 to 0.354 and genotypes were subdivided into at least 5 groups of similarity. The dispersion graphs showed a low clustering tendency for yield and resistance to different diseases (septoriosis, anthracnose, scab, bacterial spot, and passion fruit woodiness disease). These results demonstrate a high genetic variability among the evaluated genotypes, which is valuable information when selecting promising materials to be used perse or as parents in genetic breeding programs.