GENE ACTION AND HETEROSIS IN POINTED GROUD (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with 17 F hybrids of pointed gourd obtained by crossing a male parent to 17 female parents at the experimental farm of Regional Agricultural Research Station, Ishurdi of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute. Significant differenecs were observed among the parents and hybrids for most of the 34 characters studied except fruit width. A top cross analysis was performed to evaluate the F1 s. The average performances of the top crosses were lower than that of the parents for length of internode at first harvest, days to first flowering, fruit development period and harvest interval. l)ifferent parents showed superiority in respect of different characters. The parent PGO09 was superior female parent giving higher fruit yield per harvest (g). The parent 116006 had the highest breeding value in respect of yield per harvest (g) followed by l'0009. P6006 was also the best parent for number of fruits per plant, number of fruits per harvest, harvest length and pulp: seed ratio. Both positive and negative heterosis was found for different characters in different hybrids. Highly significant and positive heterosis was found in hybrid PCi02IXM2 for fruit weight, pulp weight, dry mailer content and yield per harvest. While, significant and negative heterosis for early first flowering was observed in PCi020XM2, for first flower bearing node number in PG007XM2. These hybrids might be used in future breeding program to exploit heterosis for better yield in pointed gourd.