Pollen Viability in Eggplant Using Colorimetric and In vitro Techniques

The causes of fruit abortion, in eggplants, may be related to the absence of viable pollen under high temperatures, common in the Northeast region of Brazil, resulting in a reduction in the number of fruits per plant and consequently in productivity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the techniques of identification of PV – pollen viability in eggplant, as well as to correlate these results with the FFI – Fruit Fixation Index, NFP – Number of Fruits per Plant and PP – Production per Plant obtained in cultivation under high temperatures. The experiment was conducted at the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil, between September and December 2017. The experiment design was a randomized block design with four replications, in the 7 x 4 factorial scheme (7 genotypes x 4 evaluation of PV) containing four plants per experimental plot. The results showed that the different techniques used detected viable pollens in the genotypes evaluated in smaller and in larger proportions. The highest percentages were observed in the treatments with CA – Carmine Acetic and AS – Alexander Solution and these overestimated the PV (>90%). In the test with TTC – 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (25%), the viability estimation was equivalent to the in vitro germination test, however the genetic correlations were null and/or very low between these techniques and the FFI, NFP and PP traits. The genetic correlations between the results obtained with CA and AS with FFI, NFP and PP under conditions of high temperatures were high and positive and suggest that the selection based on PV only, except with the use of TTC solution, may be efficient for indirect selection of genotypes with high FFI, NFP and PP.