Parental diversity and hybrids performance for yield related traits in ridge gourd [Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.]

An investigation was carried out to evaluate 5 × 5 half diallel population in the field of BSMRAU following Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Molecular diversity was estimated among the parental lines of ridge gourd with eight RAPD markers. Analysis of Molecular Variance (AMOVA) revealed the percentages of molecular variance within population as well as among population as 67% and 33%, respectively. Heatmap illustrated that RG006 exhibited most dissimilarity with RG001, RG003 and RG005. Consequently, Unweighted Neighbor Joining tree clustered the explored parental genotypes of ridge gourd into three major groups. Principle Co-ordinate Analysis (PCoA) revealed maximum genetic distance between RG006 and RG007. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of genotypes, parents and hybrids revealed significant variation for majority of the traits including fruit yield per plant. The hybrid combinations, RG002 × RG007 and RG004 × RG007 were recorded as the best hybrids based on mid and better parent heterosis for the traits viz., days to first female flower appearance, days to first fruit, days to first harvest, first female flower, number of female flower and average fruit weight and RG006 × RG007 has recorded as fruit yield per plant. The hybrids RG002 × RG007 and RG004 × RG006 recorded for best performance of average fruit weight, fruits per plant and fruit yield per plant, respectively and RG006 × RG007 gave the highest fruit yield per plant (632.72 g). Based on the above finding’s, the cross combinations RG002 × RG006, RG002 × RG007, RG004 × RG007 and RG006 × RG007 could be exploited for further evaluation for the development of commercial hybrids with earliness and high yield.