A new early-maturing and high-yielding passion fruit cultivar Miyu

Abstract: The passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims) is native to tropical America and has more than 500 species, of which at least 50 or more are edible. At present, P. edulis f. flavicarpa and P. edulis f. edulis are the main cultivated varieties, widely appreciated and accepted by consumers worldwide due to its unique flavor and high medicinal value. It is also called passion flower or egg fruit because it contains apple, guava, banana, strawberry, mango, pineapple and other 130 kinds of fruit aroma. The peel and pulp of passion fruit have many biological functions, such as controlling blood sugar, anti-hypertension, anti-inflammation and reducing fat, protecting liver and kidney, and regulating cardiac autonomic nerve functions. In addition, passion fruit peel powder can be used as food raw material when added to baking products. Passion fruit has high nutritional and medicinal value with great development potential. In recent years, passion fruit has been highly accepted by the market, and the domestic planting area has grown rapidly, especially in Fujian, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hainan, etc., and has become a popular emerging characteristic fruit crop. However, at present, the varieties of passion fruit are relatively mixed, and excellent varieties with independent intellectual property rights are scarce. In purple passion fruit, many cultivars have the defects of high acidity, easy peeling during post- harvest transportation, and poor quality of fresh food. In yellow fruit, guava-flavored golden fruit is favored by the market due to their high sweetness and low acidity, and the planting area has developed rapidly. However, the yellow fruit varieties have poor cold resistance, delayed phenological period, and are easily affected by high temperature in summer. In autumn and winter, the fruits cannot fully ripen due to the influence of low temperature, and the plants are susceptible to freezing, which greatly restricts the development of yellow fruit varieties. Therefore, cultivating high- quality varieties with early maturity, high sweetness and good resistance has become an important goal in passion fruit germplasm resource innovation andnew variety breeding. The passion fruit cultivar Miyu is a hybrid between Fuzi (♀) Χ Balewei (♂). The characteristics of fruit are nearly round, mostly apical and large fruit of about 83.8-92.8 g in weight with yellow pulp, purplish red surface and thick peel. The fruit is rich in juice, aroma and suitable taste with sour-sweet, TSS is ranged from 17.3% to 17.8%, TA content is 2.1% and the content of vitamin C is 19.3 mg · 100 g^-1 FW, approximately. Moreover, the edible rate is 55.5%. The new cultivar Miyu has the profile of early maturing with short fruit development period in the same year. The fruit is early maturing and has a long fruiting period. It is relatively high-yielding and has a great postharvest value. Its yield is around 800-1200 kg per 666.7 m² . This review provides the basic introduction about passion fruit production and quality in China as well as detailed information about the passion fruit cultivar Miyu. It is still needed to further investigate the potential of other early maturing cultivars to ensure the better production of passion fruit.