Combining ability and heterosis for yield and quality characters in bottle gourd

Gene action, combining ability and heterosis for quality and yield attributes in bottle gourd was studied by involving 66 cross combination obtained from crossing twelve divers inbred in half- diallel fashion. The studies indicated that the ratio of additive variance to dominance variance revealed the predominance of non-additive gene action for carbohydrate and additive gene action for protein, dry matter, ascorbic acid, total soluble solids and yield per plant. The high per se performance along with high gca estimates of inbred P-4 was good general combiner for protein and dry matter. P-8 was best general combiner for carbohydrate, ascorbic acid and total soluble solids while, P-11 was best general combiner for yield per plant. Therefore the above inbred utilized in future bottle gourd breeding programmes. The crosses P-3 × P-12 and P-4 × P-7 were best specific combiner for protein, P-1 × P-4 was best specific combiner for carbohydrate, P-11 × P-12, P-3 × P-8 and P-5 × P-6 were found good specific combiner for ascorbic acid, P-5 × P-10 and P-10 × P-11 were found good specific combiner for ascorbic acid and total soluble solids, respectively. P-2 × P-7 and P-2 × P-11 were found good specific combiner for yield per plant. Hence, these combinations could effectively utilize for developing hybrids having high quality and yield purposes. The combination P-4 × P-12 showed maximum heterosis for protein, P-4 × P-8 for dry matter, P-4 × P-10 showed highest heterosis for carbohydrate, P-3 × P-7 was expressed maximum heterosis for ascorbic acid, P-5 × P- 9 for total soluble solid, whereas P-1 × P-6 showed maximum heterosis for yield per plant. The study revealed that for improvement of traits like protein, dry matter, ascorbic acid, total soluble solids and yield per plant, selections could be made, while fruit carbohydrate may be improved through hybridization.