Study On Combining Ability Between Eight Parental Inbred Lines In Bitter Gourd(Momordica Charantia L.)

A set of8bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) parental inbred lines werecrossed with each other resulting in an incomplete diallel of28progeny. Combiningabilities, genetic parameters and heterosis of the crosses and their parents wereevaluated, the results as follow:The P1×P7showed highest yield hetersis among the crosses, mid-parentadvantage and super-parent advantage of the cross were53.7%and39.7%,respectively. The P4x P7was reported to provide maximum heterosis for Vc content,mid-parent advantage and super-parent advantage of the cross were178.3%and107.1%, respectively. Fruit weight, fruit number, fruit length and yield had the largestportion for positive heterosis in all crosses, while pulp thick was the minimumheterosis in all crosses.Variance estimates due to both general combining ability (GCA) and specificcombining ability (SCA) were significant in all crosses for8traits under study.TheP1was the best comprehensive characters parent, and it revealed significant heterosisfor fruit number, yield and GCA. The P1×P7showed highly significant SCA foryield and Vc content, it was the best cross combination. Highest Vc content wasobserved in P7×P8.Genetic parameter results indicated that the additive effects predominated in theVc content and yield traits, however, non-additive effects exerted significantinfluence on plot fruit number, fruit weight, plot yield, the first node location offemale flower.