Minimal morphoagronomic descriptors for Cuban pineapple germplasm characterisation

Abstract

A set of minimum descriptors allow for the rapid characterisation of germplasm facilitating the conservation and use of plant material. The objective of this work was to establish a list of minimum descriptors to facilitate the morphological characterisation of the ex situ pineapple collection in Cuba. Therefore, 48 pineapple accessions were characterised according to the morphoagronomic descriptors established by the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR). The data were processed by Multivariate Analysis, where a Multiple Principal Components Analysis was used for the qualitative and quantitative traits. A list with 14 minimum descriptors was proposed. The leaf’s colour, the thickness of the longest leaf, the distribution of the spines, the fruit shape, the fruit colour when ripe, the flesh colour, the weight of fruit flesh, eye form, the fruit height, the fruit diameter, the fruitlet shape, the core diameter, the total soluble solids of the fruit, and the crown weight/fruit weight ratio were selected as the minimum descriptors. Because most of the descriptors refer to the pineapple’s genetic improvement or commercialisation aspects, it could be a useful tool for scientists and producers.

Minimal number of morphoagronomic characters required for the identification of pineapple (Ananas comosus) cultivars in peatlands of Riau, Indonesia

“…Out of 49 characters observed, there was 12 selected character that contributed significantly to the variation in pineapple plants on peatland. The number of characters found in this study was less than that reported by Rodriguez-Alfonso et al (2020), with 14 characters were distinguishing pineapple plants in Cuba. Fruit shape, eye profile, eye surface, flesh color, fruit diameter, crown weight are characters that have a significant contribution to diversity (Rodriguez-Alfonso et al 2020).…”

“…Although this technique has several weaknesses, such as it depends on the season and growth phase of the plant, the morphological identification provides an overview that can directly be distinguished from differences in characters and advantages of a genotype. The use of morphological characters in pineapple identification has been reported by Hadiati et al (2003), Machado et al (2011), Burhooa & Ranghoo-sanmukhiya (2012), Hernita et al (2019), andRodriguez-alfonso et al (2020) using some of the available characters. The use of many characters in identification often results in excessive information (Daher et al 1997) because of the many correlated characters or low genetic diversity.…”

“…In addition, many of the characters measured are often considered less effective in distinguishing cultivars, for example in chili. Silva et al (2013) reported 30 characters from 56 characters that are considered effective in distinguishing chilli accession, for casava, there were 13 characters out of 22 characters for cultivar identification 3855 (Silva et al 2017), in pineapples, it was reported that there were 14 characters out of 115 characters which were considered effective in distinguishing genotypes (Rodriguez-alfonso et al 2020), and in wild Rosa of 56 characters only ten characters were effective in distinguishing genotypes (Singh et al 2020). Therefore, the determination of the minimal number of characters for cultivar identification is essential.…”