Heterosis and combining ability studies in muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.)

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Date
2021
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
In the present investigation, ten diverse inbred lines were crossed in a half diallel fashion to generate forty-five F1 hybrids. The analysis of variance exhibited a significant difference among all the genotypes for the target traits. Among the parental lines, MM-625 and MM 916/NS-1 were identified as the best general combiners for fruit yield ha-1 and TSS content, respectively. The cross-combination MS-1×MM-610 exhibited the highest specific combining ability for fruit yield ha-1, while Kajri×MM-904 was identified as the best combination for TSS content. Further, the F1 hybrids KP4HM-15×MM Sel-103, MM Sel-103×MM-904, MM 916/NS-1×Riogold exhibited the positively significant heterobeltiosis for fruit yield ha-1 and TSS content. The cross combinations, KP4HM-15×MM Sel-103, KP4HM-15×MM-1831, and MM-610×MM 916/NS-1 recorded the highest standard heterosis for fruit yield and TSS content over the popular hybrids, MH-27, MH-51, and Farmer Glory. The genetic inheritance inferences revealed the predominance of non-additive gene action (dominance) for most of the characters indicating their exploitation through hybrid breeding. In relationship analysis, fruit yield per ha-1 exhibited positive and significant correlation with average fruit weight, number of fruits per vine, flesh thickness, vine length and number of branches. The direct and indirect effect of different characters on fruit yield per hectare were also studied. The path analysis indicated the effectiveness of selection through direct and indirect effect of variables. Kajri × MM-904, MM Sel-103 × MM 916/NS-1 and KP4HM-15 × MM Sel-103 F1 hybrids were found to be resistant to Fusarium wilt, root knot nematode and virus infestation, respectively. In molecular divergence analysis, among 121 SSRs, 70 primers exhibited the parental polymorphism. Certain SSR markers viz., DM0561, CMAAAGN14, TJ147, CMMS35_3, CMAGN45 and DE1337 identified specific/unique alleles, which could further be utilized to identify the respective genotypes. DNA finger printing of F1 hybrids was also carried out using these SSR markers. Overall, the finding of this study revealed that the novel inbred lines can effectively be combined to generate heterotic F1 hybrids for yield and other traits, such as total soluble solids, β-carotene content, netting intensity, both rind and flesh thickness. Further, SSR markers can potentially be utilized for confirming the genetic diversity among parental lines and DNA finger printing of F1 hybrids.
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Simranpreet Kaur (2021). Heterosis and combining ability studies in muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) (Unpublished M.Sc. thesis). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.
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