Genotyping-by-sequencing of commercial and native Florida passion fruit species

The passion fruit genus, Passiflora, is diverse comprising more than 500 species with several species admired for their tropical fruit and ornate flowers. Commercially, P. edulis is the most important species and includes yellow or purple-skinned fruit types. Major threats to commercial production include both abiotic and biotic stresses that can reduce yield, decrease fruit quality, or kill passion fruit vines. Recent advances in passion fruit genomics are facilitating systematic plant improvement and the creation of elite cultivars by leveraging the high phenotypic and genetic diversity of the species. Marker-assisted breeding of passionfruit has the potential to enable informed decisions related to parental selection, confirm parentage of potential hybrids, identify mis-identified accessions, and resolve species assignments. The purpose of this study was to develop single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers to characterize a passion fruit germplasm collection with an emphasis on native Florida passion fruit species. In total, 59 accessions from 20 species were genotyped.