Genetic diversity and interrelation analysis in sweet gourd (Momordica cochinchinensis) genotypes of Northeast India

Abstract

Forty sweet gourd (Momordica cachinchinensis) access; ons collected from different states of northeast I nd; a were evaluated for eight quantitative and qualitative characters. The phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) were invariably higher than their corresponding genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV). High heritability coupled with high genetic advance observed for fruit yield/plant, number of fruits/plant and days to flowering, however, high heritability accompanied with low genetic advance values were observed for fruit length, average fruit weight and ascorbic acid. Correlation studies revealed that fruit yield/plant had positive and highly significant correlation with number of fruits/plant (0.988), fruit length (0.575) and average fruit weight (0.478). The path analysis revealed that number of fruits/plant, average fruit weight and fruit length exercised maximum direct effect on fruit yield indicating traits of great importance for yield improvement. The genotypes under study were grouped into six clusters. The maximum inter cluster distance was exhibited between cluster I and V