Assessment of genetic diversity for qualitative and quantitative traits in pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata)

Abstract

The current investigation on genetic divergence was carried out using Mahalanobis D2 statistics for yield and other qualitative and quantitative traits and five clusters were formed. Cluster I contains the maximum number of genotypes (9), followed by clusters III, and IV with 8 and 6 genotypes, respectively, and clusters II and V are monogenotypic. The intra-cluster distance was highest in cluster I (122.81) and lowest for clusters II and V (0.00), which have only one genotype, whereas, the inter-cluster distance was highest between clusters II and V (1283.61) and lowest between clusters III and IV (124.18). Cluster V records the highest mean for number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant, and lowest for days to 50% flowering. Maximum contribution towards genetic divergence in percent was by fruit yield per hectare (30.00), followed by node at first male flower appearance (17.33), fruit length (15.67), flesh thickness (7.67) and lowest for number of fruits per plant (0.33). Genotypes belong to clusters I and III may be used in hybridization breeding.