Variability of Fruit Quality among 103 Acerola (Malpighia emarginata D. C.) Phenotypes from the Subtropical Region of Brazil

Abstract

Acerola fruit is one of the richest natural sources of ascorbic acid. As a consequence, acerola fruit and its products are in demand worldwide for the production of health supplements and for the development of functional products. Acerola phenotypes (103) were screened in Western Paraná State, in the Southern region of Brazil, and evaluated to obtain information on fruit quality characteristics with the aim of using them in future breeding programs. Principal Component and Hierarchical Cluster analysis were performed on all datasets to explore the variability among samples and to identify the main clusters. A great variability among phenotypes was observed, with potential for use in breeding programs. Seven phenotypes were selected as candidates in the next breeding program, characterized by high vitamin C content and yield, or higher values of fruit size and color parameters. Four belong to cluster 1 and three to cluster 2. Specifically, two phenotypes, belonging to cluster 2, showed the best performance in terms of vitamin C (2150 mg 100 g−1 pulp and 2625 mg 100 g−1 pulp respectively) and pulp yield (74.8% and 82.3% respectively), and one phenotype, belonging to cluster 1, for high pulp yield, fruit size and vitamin C content (80.3% 6.43 g and 2490 mg 100 g−1 pulp).

Sensitivity of the Neotropical Solitary Bee Centris analis F. (Hymenoptera, Apidae) to the Reference Insecticide Dimethoate for Pesticide Risk Assessment

“…Centris analis prefers pollen from the cultivated plant Malpighia emarginata , the acerola fruit tree (Silva et al, 2017), of which Brazil is the world's greatest producer (Farinelli et al, 2021). Currently, 21 pesticides are recommended to be used in the Malpighia emarginata crops, including insecticides, fungicides, and acaricides (Ministério de Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, 2023).…”

Bayesian and classical approaches for the estimation of genetic parameters and coefficients of repeatability of acerola quality traits

“…The commercial cultivation of acerola in Brazil started in the late 1980s and was mostly focused on the production of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) for the food and pharmaceutical industries. At that time, acerola trees were mainly propagated by seeds (sexual method), which resulted in a high genetic variability in Brazilian acerola orchards (Ritzinger, Ritzinger, Fonseca, & Machado, 2017) that has been observed until the present day and reported in studies that have evaluated the fruit quality of different acerola genotypes cultivated in different regions (Farinelli et al, 2021;Ferreira et al, 2021;Ferreira et al, 2022;Magalhães et al, 2018). In this context, the use of biometric tools is key for genotype characterization to optimize selection.…”

Quality Attributes Prediction of Flame Seedless Grape Clusters Based on Nutritional Status Employing Multiple Linear Regression Technique

“…Thus, enhancement of leaf nutrients content such as N, P, K, Ca, Mg and Fe led to improve quality of grape berries' physical properties [75]. Therefore, Pearson's correlation was used to assess the relationships among fruit quality variables [79,80]. As in Table 6, there are some high positive correlations and some negative correlations.…”