Estimation of genetic parameters related to morphoagronomic and fruit quality traits of papaya

Abstract

1 Laboratorio de Melhoramento Genetico Vegetal, Centro de Ciencias e Tecnologias Agropecuarias, Universidade Estadual do Norte Fluminense Darcy Ribeiro (UENF), Avenida Alberto Lamego, 2000, 28.013-600, Campos dos Goytacazes, RJ, Brasil. *E-mail: messias@uenf.br 2 Laboratorio de Engenharia Agricola, UENF 3 Caliman Agricola S.A., C.P. 52, 29.900-970, Linhares, ES, Brasil ABSTRACT The estimation of genetic parameters allows an identification of the genetic variability in a population and underlies the choice of the most suitable improvement methods. This study aimed to estimate the genetic parameters related to morpho-agronomic and fruit quality traits in the following papaya genotypes: 16BC1S1, 52BC1S1, 115BC1S1, SS 72/12 x 4BC1, BC2, SS 783 and Golden. Based on the means and respective standard deviations and on the estimates of genetic parameters of the evaluated traits, it was concluded that selection in the segregating generations has great chances of success, in view of the wide genotypic variability among them, with values of H2 (coefficient of genotypic determination) of over 80% for most evaluated phenotypic attributes. Considering the importance of the flowering and fruiting attributes, the high H2 indicates that improvement programs can achieve great increases in papaya yield.