Study on genetic divergence in various genotypes of watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Mansf.].

Abstract

The results of the analysis of variance indicated that substantial genetic variability was present for yielding contributing characters. The intra-cluster distance was recorded as the highest for cluster 3 (49.75) which indicates the existence of maximum variability within this cluster. The inter-cluster distance was maximum between clusters 5 and 6 (94.81) which indicates that the genotypes included in these clusters are genetically diverse. So, it is desirable to select accessions from the clusters having high inter-cluster distance in the recombination breeding programs. The minimum inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster 1 and cluster 5 (50.92), indicating the close relationship among the genotypes included in these clusters. Based on yield and yield contributing characters, the genotypes viz., VRW-14, VRW-12, VRW- 20 and VRW-17 were found promising for the future improvement programme.