Genetic Divergence Studies in Bottle Gourd. The Plant Lagenaria Siceraria

Scientific Study from the year 2020 in the subject Biology - Botany, , course: M.sc. Horticulture (Vegetable Science), language: English, abstract: The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Thirty genotypes were evaluated for various quantitative and quality traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among genotypes for all the traits. The maximum fruit yield plant-1 was recorded in Shalimar improved (7.57 kg) followed by SH-BG-72 (7.30 kg), SH-BG-17 (7.28 kg) and minimum in SH-BG-53 (4.32 kg). The estimates of phenotypic coefficient of variance were slightly higher than the corresponding genotypic coefficient of variance for all the characters studied indicating the little influence of environment in the expression of these traits.The highest phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were observed for fruit diameter (35.65 and 34.62) followed by total chlorophyll (30.08 and 20.02) and fruit length (23.70 and 23.44). High heritability coupled with high genetic gain was recorded for fruit length (0.97 and 47.74), fruit diameter (0.94 and 71.73), total sugars (0.74 and 24.05) and dry matter content (0.84 and 25.42) indicating that the heritability is most likely due to additive gene effects and thus the chances of fixing by selection are more. Fruit yield plant-1 was positively associated with traits like node number at which first male flower appeared, node number at which first female flower appeared, number of days to anthesis of first female flower, fruit diameter, dry matter content and total sugars.Moreover the traits like days to last fruit harvest and number of fruits plant-1 showed significant positive genotypic correlation with fruit yield plant-1 indicating that direct selection of these traits will be effective. Path coefficient analysis revealed appreciable amount of direct positive effects of component traits like node number at which first male flower appeared, days to anthesis of first female flower, days to last fruit harvest, number of fruits plant-1, fruit weight plant-1 and total sugars on fruit yield plant-1. D2 statistics grouped thirty genotypes of bottle gourd into three clusters. Cluster I had maximum number of genotypes (25) followed by cluster II (4) and cluster III (1).