GENETIC VARIABILITY STUDIES IN MUSKMELON (Cucumis melo L.)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University Dhaka, during Kharif I, 2020 using thirteen muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) genotype to study the genetic variability among the genotype in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences for various traits among genotypes. For all of the characters, phenotypic variance are greater than genotypic variance. The number of fruits per plant (47.73), single fruit weight (52.55), and yield plant per plant (90.40) all had high genotypic co-efficients of variation (GCV). High heritability with high genetic advance in percent of mean was observed in number of fruits per plant (86.05), single fruit weight (99.12), rind thickness (24.33) and yield plant per plant (93.47) which indicated that these traits would be effective for genetic improvement. High heritability with low genetic advance in percent of mean was observed in days to first male flowering (59.93) and days to first female flowering (60.15). The result revealed a highly significant positive correlation with plant height (rg= 0.615, rp= 0.541), number of branches per plant (rg= 0.698, rp= 0.530), number of fruits per plant (rg= 0.652, rp= 0.703), single fruit weight(rg= 0.854, rp= 0.778), rind thickness (rg= 0.579, rp= 0.517), and flash thickness (rg= 0.664, rp= 0.649) to yield per plant. Thirteen muskmelon genotypes were grouped into four cluster. Cluster III exhibited maximum 5 genotypes while cluster I had only 2 genotypes. Among four cluster, the highest inter-cluster distance (8.13) was observed between clusters II and IV, while the lowest (5.164) was observed between clusters I and III. Cluster IV had the highest intra cluster distance (3.144), while Cluster II had the lowest (0.874). Considering group distance and phenotypic performances, the inter genotypic crosses between G13 (BD-11268) and G11 (BD-11266); G13 and G12 (BD-11267); G13 and G2 (BD-11254); G12 and G11; G12 and G2; and G11 and G2 might be suggested for future hybridization program.