Genetic divergence studies in Bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl.]

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out at Horticultural Research Station, Mondouri, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, India during spring summer seasons of 2015, 2016 and 2017 in a Randomized Block Design with three replications. Genetic divergence was assessed among twenty one genotypes of bottle gourd for sixteen quantitative characters using Mahalanobis’ D2 statistics. The genotypes were grouped into six clusters. Fruit yield per plant (53.81%) contributed maximum towards divergence followed ascorbic acid content of the pulp (28.10%), seed number per fruit (4.29%) and TSS of the pulp (4.29%). Highest inter cluster distance was observed between cluster I and VI followed by cluster V and VI. Highest cluster mean values were observed for most of the traits with the genotypes present in cluster I. Based on superior mean performance for fruit yield per plant, genetic distances and clustering pattern, six promising and diverse inbred lines or varieties of bottle gourd viz., RJBGC-140, RJBGC-118, BOGVAR-2 and Pusa Samridhi (from cluster I) and Arka Bahar (from cluster VI) and Pusa Sandesh (from cluster V) selected as parents for the exploitation of hybrid vigour in bottle gourd.