ISHS Acta Horticulturae 581: IV International Congress on Cactus Pear and Cochineal
MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF CACTUS PEAR (OPUNTIA SPP.) FRUITS FROM A GERMPLASM COLLECTION |
| Authors: | F. Gutiérrez-Acosta, R.D. Valdez-Cepeda, F. Blanco-Macías |
| Keywords: | Accessions; Fruit morphometry; sugar content; seed content |
| Abstract:
Many species of Opuntia (platyopuntia) produce edible and highly flavored fruits (cactus pear). These fruits have been used historically by Mexican people for their nutritional benefits, but the evolution and domestication of cactus pear has been complex. During the last two decades, several Mexican Institutions made efforts to collect wild, backyard and cultivated genotypes of cactus pear, because an understanding of phenotypic and genetic variation is critical to cultivar or varietal development by classical or biotechnological approaches, as well as for future germplasm collection and eventual setting of priorities for germplasm maintenance. The aim of this study was to employ multivariate analyses (principal components and cluster analyses, PCA and CA, respectively) to examine fruit morphology and quality variation in the cactus pear germplasm collection at Sandovales Agricultural Experiment Station, Aguascalientes, México. What is remarkable from the PCs structures is that in PC2 a negative intercorrelation between °Brix and abortive seed number and between °Brix and abortive seed matter exists. Three clusters of accessions that are distinct on the basis of fruit morphology and quality were determined. ‘San José de la Isla’ accession is alone a group. ‘Burrona’, ‘Cristalina’ and several regional accessions are in the second group which is certainly the most diverse, whereas ‘Copena’ and ‘Alfajayucan’ teams constitute a third group. | |
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