Morpho-nutritional characterization and molecular diversity assessment of pumpkin using SSR and SRAP markers

Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duch. Ex Poir.) is incredibly useful and nutritionally rich vegetable crop having numerous industrial uses regarding seed, flesh and flesh flour, but it is still underutilized in India. Hence, it is necessary to introduce some potential selections with high yield and nutrition content. The present investigation was elucidated the morpho-nutritional potential of pumpkin for 28 morpho-biochemical characters estimated and assessment of molecular diversity using Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) and Sequence-Related Amplified Polymorphism (SRAP) marker in 34 diverse genotypes of pumpkin collected from different regions of India. The study was conducted at the Main Vegetable Research Station, Anand Agricultural University (AAU), Anand, during the kharif season of 2018. PCA explained 82.72 % total variation across traits, while multi-trait genotype-ideotype distance index (MGIDI) identified three high-performing genotypes; Anand Pumpkin 1, GPPK 95 and GPPK 59. A set of five SSR and SRAP polymorphic primers were used to estimate genetic diversity among the genotypes. The similarity matrix generates dendrogram with UPGM based on Jaccard’s coefficient implemented in NTYSIS. The clustering grouped 34 genotypes into six main clusters viz. I, II, III, IV, V and VI with 25, 4, 1, 1, 2 and 1 genotypes, respectively. The maximum genetic distance (0.75) was recorded between the genotype pairs GPPK 59 and Arka Chandan, as well as GPPK 90 and Arka Chandan. These findings highlight the potential of specific genotypes for breeding programs aimed at enhancing yield and nutritional value in pumpkin.