Abstract:
The present investigation was carried out in two years with aims to determine, gene action involving 9 parental lines
viz., NDBT-7, NDBT-9, NDBT-3, NDBT-2, Pusa Do Mausmi, NDBT-12, NDBT-1, K. Sona, NDBT-5 of bitter gourd and their 36 F
1 Hybrids at MES Vegetable Science N.D.U.A. &T. Kumarganj, Faizabad during summer 2011 and 2012. The experiments were laid out in RBD with three replications single row plot with 3m x 0.5m spacing. Observations were recorded on parents and F
1’s for 13 characters
viz. node number to first staminate and pistillate flower anthesis, days to first staminate and pistillate flower opening, days to first fruit harvest, number of primary branches per plant, node number of first fruits set, vine length (m), fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), number of fruits per plant, fruits, fruit weight (g), yield per plant (kg). In general the proportions of dominant and recessive genes in parents [4 )
1/2 + /(4 )
1/2- ] were more than unity with positive value for all the traits in both years except fruit length in Y
2 indicating major contribution of dominant genes. Moderate to high heritability along with high genetic advance in per cent of mean were observed for most of the important economic traits showing ample scope of improvement. The results of present investigation suggested preponderance of dominant genes in the expression of most of the traits studied. Therefore, heterosis breeding approach could be advantageous rather than selection to produce superior hybrids for high fruit yield in bitter gourd
. The non-significant values of ‘t
2’ or (1-b/ SEb) indicates the validity of assumptions pertaining to diallel analysis, while significant values of ‘t
2’ or (1-b/ SEb) showed failure of hypothesis or null hypothesis for diallel cross analysis.