Gene action of nutritional and quality traits in muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.)

Abstract

A study of twenty one F1 hybrids of Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) in a half-diallel set involving seven parents showed over-dominance and low narrow-sense heritability for acidity, vitamin c, TSS, sodium, potassium, zinc, manganese, copper, iron, magnesium, calcium, respiration rate and ethylene emission rate. In all these characters, the dominance component of genetic variance (H1) was higher than the additive component of genetic variance (D) indicating predominance of dominant gene action over additive gene action and commercial exploitation of heterosis for improvement of these traits.