GENETIC VARIABILITY AND DIVERSITY ANALYSIS FOR AGRO-MORPHOGENIC TRAITS OF BITTER GOURD (Momordica charantiaL.) GENOTYPES

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in the horticultural experimental field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh, during the period from March 2015 to September, to study the genetic variability in yield and yield contributing characters of bitter gourd with twelve genotypes of bitter gourd. G4 gave the best performance on vine length, branches per vine, early flowering and number of fruits per plant, the highest fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit weight and fruit yield per plant. The genotype G5 performed excellent for early flowering and G1 for the maximum number of fruits per plant. The fruit yield per plant showed the highest range of variation (3.69-12.74 Kg) with the mean value of 9.6 Kg. The significant positive correlation was found between yield and fruit length, fruit diameter and average fruit weight at genotypic and phenotypic level. Path co-efficient analysis indicated that branches per vine, fruit length, fruit weight and number of fruits per plant had direct positive effect on yield. Positive indirect effect was also found by vine length and days to flowering on yield of bitter gourd. All the genotypes show high heritability. The genotypes were also tested for genetic divergence utilizing the multivariate analysis. The genotypes were grouped into four clusters. The maximum inter-cluster distance (35.73) was presented between cluster I (contained one genotype) and cluster II (contain two genotypes). The minimum inter cluster distance (6.50) presented between cluster III (contained 3 genotypes) and cluster IV (contain 6 genotypes). The highest intra- cluster distance in cluster IV (4.454) and the lowest intra-cluster distance cluster I (0.0) was presented. Considering the magnitude of cluster mean and agronomic performance G3 (MC003), G4 (MC004), G5 (MC005), G6 (MC006) and G11 (MC1011) considered promising and might be recommended for future hybridization program.