Studies on genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.] genotypes

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out at the Experimental Field, Division of Vegetable Science, SKUAST-K, Shalimar during Kharif 2018. The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Thirty genotypes were evaluated for various quantitative and quality traits. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among genotypes for all the traits. The estimates of phenotypic coefficient of variance were slightly higher than the corresponding genotypic coefficient of variance for all the characters studied indicating the little influence of environment in the expression of these traits. The highest phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were observed for fruit diameter (35.65 and 34.62) followed by total chlorophyll (30.08 and 20.02) and fruit length (23.70 and 23.44). High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was recorded for fruit length (0.97 and 47.74), fruit diameter (0.94 and 71.73), total sugars (0.74 and 24.05) and dry matter content (0.84 and 25.42) indicating that the heritability is most likely due to additive gene effects and thus the chances of fixing by selection are more.