Characterization of pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. Ex. Poir.) germplasm through genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance

Abstract

Twenty five pumpkin germplasm from the north eastern region were evaluated for twenty traits for the genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance. The results revealed that analysis of variance showed that there was a highly significant variation for all of the considered characters. In the present investigation, PCV was recorded higher than the GCV for all the characters indicating the considerable modifying effect of environment in the expression of all characters studied. The highest PCV and GCV was observed for vitamin A (PCV=86.27%, GCV=86.23%) followed by cavity length (PCV=35.52%, GCV=34.24%) and 100 seed weight (PCV=30.04%, GCV=29.37%). The maximum estimate of heritability (in the broad sense) recorded for vitamin A (100%) followed by cavity length (98%), carbohydrates (98%), 100 seed weight (96%) and fruit yield per plant (95%). The highest genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for the characters vitamin A followed by cavity length, 100 seed weight and fruit yield per plant. Therefore, keeping the above point of view the genotypes could be select for the further breeding programme.

Genetic Estimations of Available Quality Traits for Improved Growth Yield of Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch) in Kumarganj, India

“…Pumpkin is grown in an area of 106.29 thousand hectares with annual production 2,218.40 thousand tonnes" [3]. "Heritability in a general sense, is the ratio of variation due to differences between genotypes to the total phenotypic variation for a character or trait in a population more is the variation that is heritable among the species it is better suited for different environment or has higher adaptability, heritability and genetic advance will help in determining the influence of environment for different expression of characters and this will extent the potential for selection of parents for hybridization, the adaptability could also be judged well through, genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variation, and degree of association" [4].…”

Sequence characteristics, genetic diversity and phylogenetic analysis of the Cucurbita ficifolia (Cucurbitaceae) chloroplasts genome

“…Five species are cultivated: C. argyrosperma, C. maxima, C. moschata, C. ficifolia and C. pepo; these are popular, economically important crops (gourds, squashes and pumpkins) and are widely cultivated in almost all regions having arable land. The genetic diversity and germplasm resources in four of these species (C. moschata, C. argyrosperma, C. maxima, and C. pepo) have been studied in some depth [3][4][5][6]. Furthermore, DNA barcoding [2], AFLP [7] and simple sequence repeats (SSRs) markers [8][9][10] have been developed for the study of genetic diversity and phylogenetic relationships in and between various Cucurbita species.…”