Magnitude of genetic variability and diversity analysis in bottle gourd accessions using agro-morphological descriptors

Bottle gourd, a climbing vine crop exhibits potential genetic variability, offering opportunities for breeding new cultivars thorough characterization and evaluation of accessions. This study aimed to assess the extent of variability, genetic diversity and the relationships among various agro-morphological traits across 17 bottle gourd accessions. The present experiment was conducted at the Vegetable Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology and Sciences, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India during 2020-2021 and 2021-2022. The accessions were organized using a randomized complete block design with three replications. The substantial mean square values observed across all studied traits confirm the presence of adequate genetic variability among the evaluated accessions. The bottle gourd yield per hectare exhibited a highly significant and positive correlation with branch count/vine (0.724*), vine length (0.660*), fruit diameter (0.608*), fruit length (0.525*), fruit weight (0.780*), fruit/vine (0.917*), ascorbic acid (0.890*), soluble solids (0.858*) and yield/plant (1.000*). The highest positive direct effect on fruit yield per hectare was exerted by yield/plant (0.9722) and fruit/vine (0.0221). Principal component analysis demonstrated that 85.90 % of the total variance was contributed by the first three components, in which genotypes were characterized. Through multivariate analysis, the study effectively examined genetic divergence and classified the 17 accessions into five distinct clusters. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between Cluster II and Cluster IV, highlighting considerable diversity among the accessions within these groups and holding potential for broad enhancements in subsequent crop breeding programs.