S. Pramanik2
P.P.Bhagavati1
Satadal Das1
S. Marandi1
Abstract
Snake gourd, a monoecious, warmth-loving underutilized cucurbit, is a good source of proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, fibre and several other phyto-nutrients, making it a wholesome and healthy food. In a populous country like India, the present challenge and dire need is to enhance food productivity as well as the crop biomass potential per unit area in the farmers’ fields to ensure nutritional and income security. Fifteen advanced mutant lines and a parental control of snake gourd were evaluated for yield performances in 2023 to assess genetic diversity through principal component analysis (PCA) and D2 analysis.PCA showed that the first Eigen root had amaximum of 39.491% variation of the total variation, while the first four principal component axes together explained 83.054% of the variation. Clustering through D2 analysis revealed maximum inter-cluster distance of 200.489 between clusters I and III followed by cluster III and V (187.754), thus, the genotypes grouped under cluster I, III and V may contribute maximum to heterosis with desirable agronomic traits having wide variability , including transgressive segregants in selfed generations in future hybridization programmes. Principal components reduced the yield related traits into four PCs, which explain 83.054% of the total variation. Length and girth of fruits, number of seeds per fruit and ascorbic acid content contributed the most towards divergence. Based on divergence, all the mutant lines along with the control were grouped into five clusters and selecting the parents from widely separated clusters are the most probable to give desirable recombinants. BCSG-2, BCSG-9, BCSG-12 and BCSG- 14 have been found to be significantly potent lines. It is quite evident that the genotypes from among the geographically different populations and the places of collection may not be genetically diverse and hence, it should be taken into consideration for future snake gourd improvement programmes.