GENETIC VARIABILITY AND DIVERGENCE STUDIES IN WILD MELON (Cucumis melo subsp. agrestis)
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Date
2014-06
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University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot
Abstract
A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2013-14 to study the genetic variability, correlation, path coefficient analysis and genetic diversity for growth, yield and quality related characters in wild melon (Cucumis melo subsp. agrestis) with 24 genotypes in randomized block design with two replications. The quantum of genetic variation as indicated by the higher values of genotypic co-efficient of variation (GCV) was highest in average fruit weight (56.57%) followed by seed to pulp ratio (51.30%) and number of fruits per vine (48.33%). However, days to first female flowering (7.04%) and days to first male flowering (9.81%) to be the character with least GCV as compared to the other characters. High heritability with moderate genetic advance was reported for the growth parameters viz., for vine length and leaf area. The high heritability with high GAM was observed for the entire yield related traits. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for the number of seeds per fruit (79.65% and 140.50%, respectively).
The correlation studies revealed that fruit yield had positive and significant correlation with growth parameters like leaf area and days to first male flowering as well as yield related traits like average fruit weight, fruit length, fruit breadth and quality traits like cavity size, number of seeds per fruit and flesh thickness. Similarly results of path analysis also revealed that leaf area, fruit length, fruit breadth, cavity size, flesh thickness and TSS have positive and direct effect on fruit yield.
Mahalanobis D2 analysis indicated considerable diversity among 24 genotypes and were grouped into 8 main clusters. The cluster I (22.12) showed maximum intra cluster diversity. However Inter cluster distance revealed the maximum divergence between clusters III and VIII (97.23) followed by cluster VI and VIII (95.56). For this diversity variations in vitamin C (71.01%) maximum contribution has showed. In conclusion from the present study genotypes HUB-21 and HUB-6 recorded higher yield and found superior over all other genotypes.
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