GENETIC VARIABILITY, CORRELATION AND PA TH ANALYSIS OF POINTED GOURD (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.)

Abstract

The experiment was conducted on variability and estimation of genetic parameter, correlation, path analysis and genetic diversity of 24 accessions of pointed gourd (Trlchosanthes dioica) at Regional Agricultural Research Station, BARI, Ishurdi, Pabna during the period from November 2005 to November 2006. Significant variations were recorded among the pointed gourd accessions in respect of different parameters such as days to first flower, fruit length, fruit breadth, single fruit weight, pulp seed ratio, number of fruits per plant, weight of fruit per plant and yield of fruit. The accession PG020 showed the highest performance in weight of fruits per plant, single fruit weight and yield. The highest genotypic and phenotypic coefficients were recorded in the parameter number of fruits per plant (5415.55% and 5623.67%) and second highest was recorded from yield of fruits ton per hectare ( 410.30% and 410.98%). How ever, days required to first flowering(49.86% and 52.41%), fruit length (7.4% and 7.42%), fruit breadth (23.56% and 26.79%), single fruit weight (172.27% and 173.28%), and weight of fruit per plant (161.87% and 162.85%) recorded moderate GCV and PCV. Correlation coefficient indicated that fruit yield per plant was highly significant and there was a positive association with weight of fruit per plant, number of fruits per plant and single fruit weight. In respect of path analysis, fruit breadth, number of fruits per plant, weight of fruit per plant directly contributed to the yield of pointed gourd accessions. The accessions were also tested for genetic divergence utilizing the multivariate analysis. The accessions were grouped into five clusters. The cluster I and IIl had the highest number of accessions (6) followed by cluster ll (4), IV (3) and V (5). No relationship was found between genetic divergence and geographic distribution of the accessions. In this study Clusters I and III contained the highest number of accessions (6) followed by cluster V (5) and cluster II (4) respectively. The lowest accessions (3) were found in the clusters IV. The highest intra cluster distance was computed for cluster IV (35.80) composed of six accessions followed by cluster I (28.12) and cluster V (26.63). The minimum intra cluster distance was found in cluster III ( 18.87). Higher inter and intra- cluster distance indicates higher genetic variability among accessions between and within clusters, respectively.