Genetic parameters and identification of transgressive segregation for lycopene and anthocyanin contents in fruits from guava ( Psidium guajava ) crosses

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) fruits are rich sources of lycopene and anthocyanins, which are two bioactive compounds of major importance for human health. Herein, we estimate the coefficients of repeatability (r) and broad-sense heritability (h2 B) for fruit contents of lycopene and anthocyanin in progenies from guava crosses, aiming to support the development of new nutritionally rich cultivars. A total of 225 and 152 progenies from three and two guava crosses were evaluated for fruit lycopene and anthocyanin contents, respectively, over three harvesting seasons. The estimates of h2 B were higher than those of r for all methods, except for anthocyanin in the population “Pedro Sato” × “Purple Guava” (PSR). The increase in lycopene content shows greater potential in the population “Pedro Sato” × “Paluma” (PSP) (h2 B = 0.94), compared with the other populations. For anthocyanin content, the low h2 B values indicate difficulties in improving this trait in both PSR and PSR populations. The identification of transgressive segregation for lycopene and anthocyanin (reaching up to 6.12 and 26.75 mg 100 g−1 fresh weight, respectively) suggests the potential implementation of breeding strategies based upon selection of individual progenies/clones combining higher contents of both nutraceutical compounds.