Inheritance of the Number of Ovules per Ovary and Selection of Cacao Genotypes

Rita de Cássia Bahia, Ronan Xavier Corrêa, Ronaldo Carvalho Santos, Regina Celle Rebouças Machado, Edna Dora Newman Luz, Ioná Santos Araújo, Dário Ahnert

Centro de Pesquisas do Cacau, Comiss?o Executiva do Plano da Lavoura Cacaueira, Itabuna, Brasil.
Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Ilhéus, Brasil.
MARS Center for Cocoa Science, Itajuípe, Brasil.

DOI: 10.4236/ajps.2013.47169                

Abstract

We have characterized the number of ovules per ovary (NoOV) in cacao plants originated from crossing the clones CCN 51 and TSH 1188 (segregating progeny) and determined the heritability of this characteristic in order to select plants with higher NoOV in this progeny. The NoOV was calculated as the average of 10 flowers per plant and ranged from 44.8 to 58.6 between the six clones (two parents and four clones belonging to their genealogy). In the progeny (n = 209 plants) the NoOV averaged 54.3 (range 44.1 to 67.8). The NoOV was distributed uniformly among the progeny indicating that this trait is conditioned by polygenes. Its heritability was estimated at 67.7%. The 32 plants with NoOV similar or superior to the genitor CCN 51 (highest amount among clones) were selected for use in the genetic improvement program. We showed that this population is suitable for genetic mapping, molecular marker identification and selection of superior cacao genotypes.

Keywords

Theobroma cacao; Flower Trait; Heritability; Reproductive Biology; Genetic Improvement

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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