Nature of Gene action and Heritability for Yield and its contributing traits in Sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrical Roem.)

Abstract

The present investigations were carried out to estimate the genetic components of variation for yield and yield attributing traits in sponge gourd. Understanding the nature of gene action could be helpful in predicting the effectiveness of selection in a population. A clear knowledge of the type of gene action, its magnitude and composition of genetic variance is of fundamental importance to a plant breeder. The eight parental lines of sponge guard with diallel crosses (without reciprocals) were conducted for yield and its related traits .The estimates components of variance of SCA were higher than GCA for all characters except days to first female flower, days to first picking, fruit length, indicating predominance of non-additive gene action for most of the characters under study. The estimated variances due to sca (s2g) were magnitudually high and greater than the values of gca variance (s2g) for all the character studied except days required for first female flower, days required for first male flower in kharif season, length of fruit, girth of fruit and length of pedicel which reveals that for all the 13 (thirteen) characters studied the magnitude of dominance (non-additive) gene action was greater than that of addictive gene action. The heritability in narrow sense observed for all the characters was worked out by comparing the estimated values of genetic variance with total phenotypic variance. Preponderance of dominant gene in the expression suggested that hybrid breeding can be used efficiently improve yield and yield contributing traits in sponge gourd.