Assessment of genetic diversity based on cluster and principal component analyses for yield and its contributing characters in bitter gourd

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to analyze multivariate analysis based on cluster and principal component (PC) for yield and its eleven contributing traits in 32 bitter gourd genotypes including two checks, i.e. Pusa Do Mausami and Kalyanpur Sona during summer of 2011 & 2012. The cluster analysis categorized all 32 bitter gourd genotypes into 6 major clusters. Extreme genetic divergence was estimated among clusters. Average inter-cluster distance was found maximum (717.86) between cluster V (NDBT-12) and cluster VI (NDBT-76). The proportionate contribution of fruit weight and fruit length towards genetic divergence was 74 and 13%, respectively. Highest cluster mean values for fruits/ plant, fruit weight (g) and fruit yield/plant (kg) was found in cluster V followed by cluster II. Principal component analysis revealed that first six principal components (PC1, PC2, PC3, PC4, PC5 and PC 6) accounted for 83.19% of the total variations with the proportionate contribution values of 23.88, 16.81, 13.28, 11.23, 9.38 and 8.61%, respectively. The first PC has positive association with node No. to anthesis of first staminate flower and days to first fruit harvest, while negative association with fruit weight (g), fruits/ plant and fruit yield/ plant (kg). Promising diverse parents identified based on cluster and PC analyses were selected for future hybridization programme.