Gene action studies for biochemical attributes in pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. ex. Poir.)

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to obtain the information based on gene action of parents and their combinations for genetic improvement in pumpkin. Eight promising genotypes were crossed in a diallel manner (excluding reciprocals). Half diallel set of 28 F1’s in pumpkin was evaluated in Randomized Complete Block Design (RBD) with three replications for seven traits during Zaid 2022-23 (Y1) and 2023-24 (Y2) at the Main Experimental Station, Department of Vegetable Science, Acharya Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Narendra Nagar, Kumarganj, Ayodhya (U.P.) India. The study evidently showed highly significant differences being observed for most of the traits under study. Based on gene action, both additive and dominance variance were found important in the inheritance of most of the traits, whereas dominance variance was more prominent than the additive variance in both seasons. Average degree of dominance revealed the presence of over dominance for all traits in both the seasons and the proportions of genes ( H2 /4 H1 ) in the parents were less than 0.25 for all the traits indicating asymmetrical distribution of alleles at loci, In general the proportions of dominant and recessive genes in parents i.e.(4 D 1 H 1)1/2+ 1/2 + F /(4 D H 1) 1/2- F  were more than unity with positive value for all the traits and The ratio of ( h 2 / H2 ) which estimates the number of gene groups revealed that atleast one gene group was involved in the inheritance both seasons (Y1, Y2) and rest of traits and the positive correlation (r) between parental order of dominance (Wr + Vr) and parental measurement (Yr) were showed for most of the characters in both the seasons.