Inheritance studies and validation of hybridity in guava (Psidium guajava)

• Published in: The Indian journal of agricultural sciences Vol. 87; no. 1
• Main Authors: DINESH, M R, BHARATHI, K, VASUGI, C, VEENA, G L, RAVISHANKAR, K V, NISCHITA, P
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-01-2017
• ISSN: 0019-5022; 2394-3319
• DOI: 10.56093/ijas.v87i1.67007

The guava (Psidium guajava L.) having originated in tropical America and rich in nutrients is extensively cultivated in India. The varieties observed in India are of two types with white and pink pulp. Three white pulp varieties (Allahabad Safeda, Sardar Guava and Apple Colour) and two pink pulp varieties (Purple Local and Thailand) were utilized for crossing and 800 progenies were raised. The ANOVA showed that there is significant variability within the progenies for most of the traits in all the half-sib families. The genotypic variance was observed to be higher than the phenotypic variance for all the characters except TSS indicating non-additive gene action for TSS. Heritability (ns) was observed to be high for all the characteristics except TSS, indicating that heterosis can be exploited for TSS. The genotypic correlation coefficient was observed to be higher than the phenotypic correlation coefficient between pairs of characters, indicating that strong intrinsic correlations are reduced at the phenotypic level. The association of characteristics was observed to be negative between fruit weight and seed hardness, both at the phenotypic and genotypic level, indicating that selecting medium sized fruits would help in isolating progenies with moderately soft seeds. One of the important findings of this study is the co-heritability estimate, which was noticed to be high for all the pairs of characteristics indicates that selection for one character would help in the heritability of the other. Validation of hybridity was carried out using highly polymorphic SSR markers which were selected based on earlier screening at IIHR, Bengaluru. The SSR markers, SSR 220 and 185 gave clear reproducible bands, which clearly confirmed the hybridity of the progenies.