Associated variation for principle component in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) germplasm based on economic traits

Abstract

Evaluated forty four diverse genotypes with two checks Pant Khira-1 and Pointsette of cucumber through cluster analysis. Results revealed that total genotypes were grouped into six clusters which confirm the presence of wide genetic diversity through the formation of six clusters. The clustering pattern showed the lack of parallelism between geographic and genetic diversities. The Eigen factors of six principal components were interpreted as relative weight of variable in each component. The important variables are those which have high positive or negative weight or values. In first season the first principal component had high positive weight or value to weight of internodal length (0.388) followed by days to first female flowers (0.385) and test weight (0.075). During the second season, high positive weight to days to first fruit harvest (0.459) followed by test weight (0.327) and fruit diameter (0.212). However in pooled data, highest positive weight was due to test weight (0.517) followed by internodal length (0.470) and seed index (0.259) contributed towards high genetic divergence. Hence, these characters could respond favorably for phenotypic selection.