Advances on self-(in)compatibility of accessions of feijoa [Acca sellowiana(O. Berg.) Burret]

ABSTRACTThis present work aimed to evaluate the self-incompatibility and self-compatibility behaviour of the Brazilian Feijoa Active Germplasm Bank accessions. The presence or absence of the self-incompatibility of the accessions was accessed through hand self-pollination. Out of 210 accessions evaluated from 2001 to 2018, 53.3% were registered as self-incompatible, while 46.7% were self-compatible with different degrees of self-compatibility based on the number of formed fruits. Subsequently, the fruit set as a result of inter-crosses between five self-incompatible accessions were evaluated. Fifty per cent of the reciprocal crosses exhibited similar productive efficiency based on fruit set. Self-incompatible accessions, although compatible with each other, revealed differences in restoration, based on the number of fruit and seeds between reciprocal crosses. Using Spearman’s correlation (rs), significant association between the number of seeds and fruit set in fruits from hand self-pollination were detected in two harvests (rs = 0.64, rs = 0.72, respectively). There was also a positive correlation between the number of seeds and yield of pulp (%) in hand self-pollination (rs = 0.30; rs = 0.39, P < 0.01), hand cross-pollination (rs = 0.35, rs = 0.64) and open pollination (rs = 0.58, rs = 0.72), respectively. These associations suggest that the number of seeds could be directly related to the pulp yield and the self-compatibility of feijoa.