Backcross Aiming at the Resistance of Passion Fruit to Soil Pathogen

Brazil is the world's largest producer of passion fruit, however, the crop suffers from serious phytosanitary problems, as well as those caused by soil fungi. Thus, the objective of the present work was to estimate the genetic parameters and to select genotypes resistant to Fusarium solani species complex—FSSC in a segregating population from the first generation of backcross among P. edulis and interspecific hybrids, aiming at advancing generation in the genetic improvement program of passion fruit. The Interspecific Hybrid was used (IH) UNEMAT 142 resistant to colon rot, for generation advancement and to cultivate BRS Sol do Cerrado (Passiflora edulis Sims). In order to evaluate the resistance of the 27 genotypes of the first generation of backcrosses, inoculation with the FSUNEMAT 40 (F. solani) inoculum was performed. To estimate the components of variances, the method of maximum restricted likelihood (REML) was used and to select the best genotypes by the non-addicted linear prediction (BLUP). The variables that showed the highest heritability values were the survival period and the area under the lesion length expansion curve. The three families of backcrosses presented genotypes resistant to the fungus F. solani, however, by the methodology of mixed models REML/BLUP, only the genotypes BC1-22/1, BC1-22/2, BC1-22/3, BC1-22/4, BC1-22/6, BC1-22/7, BC1-113/3, BC1-113/7 and BC1-113/8, were selected to advance the generation of the UNEMAT passion fruit breeding program, therefore, they presented among the ten placed, mainly for the variable survival period (SP).