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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #386401
Research Project: Characterizing and Evaluating the Genetic Diversity and Horticultural Value of Genetic Resources for Cacao and Other Tropical tree crops Economically important to the United States

Location: Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory

Title: Relationship between genetic distance based on single nucleotide polymorphism markers and hybrid performance in C. canephora

Author
item AKPERTEY, ABRAHAM - Cocoa Research Institute Of Ghana
item PADI, FRANCIS - Cocoa Research Institute Of Ghana
item Meinhardt, Lyndel
item Zhang, Dapeng

Submitted to: Plant Breeding
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/16/2022
Publication Date: 2/7/2022
Citation: Akpertey, A., Padi, F., Meinhardt, L.W., Zhang, D. 2022. Relationship between genetic distance based on single nucleotide polymorphism markers and hybrid performance in C. canephora. Plant Breeding. https://doi.org/10.1111/pbr.13005.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/pbr.13005

Interpretive Summary: Genetic improvement of tree crop, such as coffee, is challenged by the long juvenility periods, which requires minimally 15 years to develop a new variety. The choice of superior parents with known genetic traits is a vital first step in any hybrid development and has a significant impact on the performance of the hybrids that are eventually deployed to farmers. In the present study the genetic relationship between parental clones and 56 C. canephora hybrid families were analyzed to assess the parental impact on hybrid yield performance. The results showed a direct positive relationship between parental divergence and cumulative yields of the 56 hybrid families. These results confirm the hypothesis that, to a degree, yield performance of hybrid crosses can be predicted. This information will be used by plant breeders and researchers to improve coffee hybrid development and provide higher yielding varieties to farmers.

Technical Abstract: Genetic improvement of tree crop is challenged by the long juvenility periods, which requires minimally 15 years to complete a varietal development. The choice of parents with known genetic divergence within an available gene pool is a vital first step in any hybrid development process, as this has significant implications on the performance of progenies to be developed; and hybrids to be deployed to farmers. The present study was conducted to determine genetic distances (GD) between parental clones of 56 C. canephora hybrid families based on SNP markers and assess the relationship between GD and hybrid performance. Sixty-six parental clones which form part of the C. canephora germplasm holding at the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) were crossed in a biparental manner to generate 56 hybrids for the study. The hybrids were evaluated at the experimental fields of the CRIG over seven years, planted in a randomized complete block design with six replications. Genetic distances among parental clones were determined based on 120 SNP markers. The results revealed a significant variation of GD between parental clones and yield performance in hybrid families. The results showed a significant association between GD and cumulative yield (r = 0.35, p < 0.0082). Moreover, a direct positive relationship between genetic distance and cumulative yield was found for 73.2% of the 56 hybrid families, confirming the hypothesis that genetic distance may be directly related to the yield performance of C. canephora hybrids and may be an efficient predicator for hybrid performance.