The objective of this work was to estimate the combined ability of sweet passionfruit by multivariate analysis to support breeding. Twelve genotypes, six female parents and six male parents, in a partial diallel were utilized to develop 36 F1 progenies, stablished in the field in randomized blocks with four replicates, without the parents. Weight of the fruit, weight of the pulp, epicarp thickness, total soluble solids content, and pulp production were evaluated. Data were submitted to analysis of variance, partial diallel analysis, and multivariate diallel variance analysis. Afterwards, the selection index of distance to the ideotype for selection of the parents was utilized. The better female and male parental were M4 and M2 and P5 and P6, respectively, and the better crosses were M4 x P6 and M2 x P2. The results provided evidence that the utilization of diallel and multivariate analysis at the same time can be useful to the breeding programs, in particular by guiding the selection of the best combinations for future crosses to further increase the genetic gain in various traits simultaneously.
Passiflora alata; multivariate dialell analysis; ideotype; parental selection; plant breeding
