Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Regional Research Station, Bhawanipatna 766 001
Evaluation of 28 non-reciprocal F1 hybrids of pumpkin revealed the involvement of both additive and non-additive gene action regulating the inheritance of yield and its components except fruit weight, number of branches and female flowers/plant. Additive genetic variance alone controlled number of branches/plant, whereas non-additive gene action exclusively governed fruit weight and number of female flowers/plant. Non-additive gene effect was predominant with pronounced epistasis and over-dominance for all the traits except number of branches/plant. Prediction of progeny performance for all the characters excepet number of branches/plant would be based on sca (non-additive) component which was corroborated by low estimate of heritability in narrow sense. Reciprocal recurrent selection, biparental mating and/or diallel selective mating is suggested for genetic improvement of yield and its attributing characters in pumpkin.
