Network of correlations between flower and fruit characteristics of yellow passion fruit

Abstract

The objective of this work was to build weighted correlation networks, to discover correlation structures and connection patterns between flower and fruit characteristics of yellow passion fruit. The experiment was conducted in the experimental area of ​​the State University of Mato Grosso - UNEMAT, Campus Professor Eugênio Carlos Stieler, Tangará da Serra - MT. The experimental design used was in randomized blocks with three replications and five flowers per plot. 110 families of siblings (FIC) from the genetic improvement program of UNEMAT's yellow passion fruit were evaluated. The parameters of morphology and floral morphometry, and fruit characteristics were evaluated using Pearson's correlation network and the results were submitted to Student's “t” test. The results of the correlation network made it possible to identify the grouping of characteristics and the correlations between characteristics of the flower and the passion fruit more quickly and easily. It was also observed that the floral characteristics (length of nectary in relation to anthers, length of nectary in relation to stigma and length of androgynophore) are the characters with the greatest correlation with physical characteristics of fruits (fruit mass, pulp weight and thickness of shell). The flowers with fully curved stilettos show better results in the fruit picking process.