Phenotypic characterization of Stauntonia obovatifoliola Hayata subsp. urophylla germplasm: a potential new fruit crop

Abstract

Stauntonia obovatifoliola Hayata subsp. urophylla is perennial, evergreen vine producing large edible fruits commonly known as “Jiuyuehuang” (September yellow) in China. In fact, rich nutritional value and favorite taste of S. obovatifoliola Hayata subsp. urophylla give it new potential as a new edible fruit crop. Investigation on genetic diversity is the basis for the conservation and utilization of genetic resources in agriculture. In the current study, we compared 16 morphological traits including single fruit weight (SFW), fruit length (FL), fruit width (FW), peel thickness (PT), peel weight (PW), soluble solids content (SSC), seed weight, edible ratio (ER), hundred-seed weight, seed length, seed width, seed number, petiole length of compound leaf, petiolule length, leaflet length and leaflet width of S. obovatifoliola Hayata subsp. urophylla populations collected from four regions in Hunan Province, China. The results showed that the fruit weight in the four populations ranged from 70.38 to 263.27 g with an average of 155.99 g, FL and FW ranged from 69.85 to 154.16 mm and 40.54 to 63.38 mm, respectively. The SSC and ER varied from 10.10 to 20.60% and 24.84 to 68.14%, respectively. ANOVA indicated that the variances of SFW, FL, FW, PT, and PW that related to fruit traits between populations were greater than within populations while the fruit traits SSC, ER has no significant differences between populations. The fruit weight showed highly positive correlations with FL (r = 0.89, p < 0.01), FW (r = 0.80, p < 0.01), PT (r = 0.71, p < 0.01) and PW (r = 0.88, p < 0.01). Morphological cluster analysis showed two distinct clusters between the evaluated individuals, the genotypes JS-9, ZJ-19, JS-12, JS-7, ZJ-17, ZJ-18 and JS-8 that can be considered as elite accessions for use in the future breeding programmes. The present study provides the baseline information for further evaluation and the exploitation of germplasm of S. obovatifoliola subsp. urophylla.