Genetic analysis in F3 generation of pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch Ex. Poir)

• Main Author: V. Krishnamoorthy1* and T. V. Avinashgupta2
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Indian Society of Plant Breeders 2021-03-01
• Series: Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding
• Subjects: heritability; gcv; pcv; genetic advance; pumpkin; cucurbita moschata

The study was conducted at the Department of Horticulture, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai during 2018. The experimental plot was laid out in Randomized block design without replication due to segregating population with four crosses P2 X P5, P3 x P5, P5 x P6 and P6 x P5 selected from the F2 generation based on the yield attributes of a single plant from the plant population and raised as F3 generation to find out GCV, PCV, heritability, genetic advance, correlation and path analysis for growth and yield traits. Though in segregating generation the plant possesses bizarre of traits in plant population. However, a wider genetic variability was observed in the crosses. The mean performance for vine length (7.47), average fruit weight (1.15) and the number of fruits per plant (3.42) was estimated for the crosses P2 x P5, P3 x P5, P5 x P6 and P6 x P5. The PCV was registered high with low genetic advance over the mean for average fruit weight (40.44), the number of seeds per fruit (30.55) and fruit yield per plant (64.31). From the correlation it was revealed that the traits viz., average fruit weight (0.822), fruit diameter (0.417), the number of seeds per fruit (0.460) and hundred seed weight (0.340) showed a significant and positive association with fruit yield per plant in the F3 generation. Path coefficient analysis revealed that the biometric traits viz., number of fruits per vine (0.5767) and average fruit weight (0.981) showed a positive direct effect on fruit yields per plant and traits like fruit diameter (0.4566), fruit length (0.3221), flesh thickness (0.1728), number of seeds per fruit (0.5719) and hundred seed weight (0.4939) exhibited positive indirect effect through average fruit weight.