Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding (Oct 2018)

Genetic divergence studies in muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.)

  • G. Senthilvadivu,
  • T.Arumugam,
  • P. Irene Vethamoni and,
  • P. Jeyaprakash

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5958/0975-928X.2018.00123.0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 3
pp. 985 – 992

Abstract

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Thirty five muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) genotypes were evaluated in a randomized block design with two replications to check its genetic diversity. Based on D2 analysis these genotypes were grouped in to 11 clusters. Out of eleven clusters, cluster I was the largest, comprising of seven genotypes. Among 21 characters studied, fruit yield per vine (24.54 %) contributed maximum towards expression of genetic divergence followed by beta carotene (23.53%), fruit fly infestation (18.49%), total sugars (6.72%), sex ratio (6.39%) and seed yield per fruit (5.21%). Maximum intra cluster distance was found in the cluster VII followed by XI, X and I. The genotypes in the most divergent clusters VI and VIII could be used for hybridization programme to develop best performing hybrids.

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