Heterosis and combining ability studies for yield and its component in sponge gourd luffa cylindrica roem l

Abstract

ABSTRACT newlineSponge gourd is an important cucurbit crop that assures food security and dietary diversity among the poor communities. Exploitation of heterosis in sponge gourd is considered as most latent avenue for quantum increase in yield. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to assess the heterosis and identify the best parent with promising single crosses for yield and its contributing components. The observation on different agro-morphological characters was recorded on five randomly selected plants from each genotype and the appropriate statistical methods were used to draw the conclusion. A half-diallel involving ten genotype were used to produce forty-five hybrids at Vegetable Research Centre, G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, U.S. Nagar (Uttarakhand). The analysis of variance for RBD and combining ability revealed the significant genetic variability among 55 sponge gourd genotypes [45 hybrids + 10 parents including standard check Swarna Prabha ] for 17 different traits under study. Moderate to high heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean were identified for the majority of the characters under study except days to germination and inetrnodal length in case of heritability and internodal length, seed length and seed width in case of genetic advance as per cent of mean which indicate ample scope for improvement for these characters newlinethrough selection. The parent Pusa Sneha and hybrid Pusa Sneha × PSG-3 had the maximum mean value for fruit yield (q/ha). The cross combination namely, RCSG-2 × Kashi Kalyani, PSG-2 × Kashi Kalyani and Pusa Sneha × PSG-3 have positive and highly significant heterosis for fruit yield (q/ha). Pusa Sneha and PSG-3 identified as best general combiners for maximum number of characters including fruit yield which can be used as a parent for the development of the superior variety for yield related characters. Pant Torai -1 × Swarna Prabha was identified as best specific combiner for maximum characters including fruit yield among the hybrids followed by RCSG-2 × Pusa Sneha and RCSG-2× PSG-3 which can be further utilized for selection of superior variety for yield and related traits. Estimates of genetic component of variance for different characters of sponge gourd revealed the predominance of dominant variance. The variance due to specific combining ability (and#963;2 SCA) was higher than the variance due to general combining ability (and#963;2 GCA) for most of the characters under study. Less than unity value of and#963;2 SCA/ and#963;2 GCA ratio suggests the greater role of non-additive gene action in the expression of all the characters under study. Thus, the characters, showed predominance of non-additive gene action with significant level of and#963;2 SCA which can be exploited through heterosis breeding. According to the analysed data, sufficient genetic variability was observed in the diverse genotypes of sponge gourd, which indicated the tremendous scope for improvement of these germplasm through selection and hybridization. Genetic information regarding yield and yield attributing components play a very significant role in the selection of desirable parents and suitable breeding methods for resulting progenies to develop and execute effective breeding program. Hybrids that exhibit significant heterosis in the desired directions of early flowering, yield, and yield-related traits including fruit length, fruit weight, and number of fruits produced per vine should be further assessed and can be used for commercial cultivation. newline newline