Study of gene effects for yield and its component traits in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) by generation mean analysis

Abstract

The experiment was carried out to study the nature and magnitude of gene effects for yield and yield attributing traits in bitter gourd by generation mean analysis involving six generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2) at Model orchard, College of Horticulture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad during summer 2011. The results revealed the presence of additive, dominance gene effects and epistatic interactions for all the characters except for vine length in cross IC-470550 × IC-470558 indicating the importance of both additive and non-additive gene actions in the expression of the characters. The greater magnitude of dominance gene effect as compare to additive effect for most of the traits suggest that heterosis breeding may be more useful. Biparental mating which could exploit both additive and non-additive type of gene effects is also suggested for the improvement of the traits in bitter gourd.

Keywords

• Bitter gourd
• generation mean analysis
• gene effects