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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Ash gourd is an under-exploited but important vegetable crop in which genetic diversity has been studied to a very limited extent. Field experiments were, therefore, conducted during the rainy seasons of 2015 and 2016, in order to study the genetic diversity in 18 ash gourd genotypes (11 landraces + 7 released varieties). The genotypes were grouped into three clusters. Clusters I, II and III contained six, three and nine genotypes respectively. Cluster III consisted of all the released varieties except Pusa Ujwal. The inter cluster distance between clusters I and II was the highest followed by the distance between clusters I and III. There was existence of wide genetic divergence among the landraces collected from very small to small geographical areas in villages of Odisha state. Cluster I had the maximum mean values for branches/plant and number of fruits/plant. Cluster III had the highest mean values for number of female flowers/plant, sex ratio, average fruit weight, fruit girth, vine length and fruit yield/plant. Relative contribution of fruit yield per plant to genetic divergence of genotypes in ash gourd was the maximum. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) in general confirmed the groupings obtained through clustering (Tocher’s) with some deviations. PCA revealed four informative components accounting for 71.51% variance. PC1 was related with fruit weight, fruit diameter, yield/plant, fruit length, weight of seeds/ fruit, branches/plant and vine length. The genotype BAGS-1(cluster I) may be crossed with BAGS-7(cluster II) or with the genotypes BAGS-10, Kashi Ujwal or Pusa Urmi (cluster III) for achieving higher heterosis.