DECIPHERING THE GENETIC ARCHITECTURE OF FRUIT YIELD IN THE UNDERUTILIZED CUCURBIT SOLENA AMPLEXICAULIS (LAM.) GANDHI THROUGH VARIABILITY, CORRELATION, AND PATH COEFFICIENT ANALYSES

Abstract

Solena amplexicaulis (Lam.) Gandhi is an underutilized cucurbitaceous vegetable crop with considerable potential for nutritional and medicinal applications. The present investigation was conducted to evaluate the degree of genetic variability, character association, direct and indirect effects of yield attributing traits among among eighteen breeding lines of S. amplexicaulis. The experiment was set up in a randomized block design with three replications, and twelve quantitative characters were assessed. Significant genotype differences were identified by analysis of variance for each attribute under investigation, revealing a high level of genetic diversity. High genotypic coefficient of variation and phenotypic coefficients of variation were recorded for fruit yield per plant (40.93 and 41.11%), number of fruits per plant (35.72 and 35.81%), node number of 1st female flower (24.69 and 25.53%), and fruit length (21.05 and 21.84%), suggesting ample scope for selection. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percentage of mean was recorded for fruit yield (99.12% and 83.94%), number of fruits per plant (99.49% and 73.40%), node number of 1st female flower (93.52% and 49.18%), fruit length (92.90% and 41.81%), and average internode length (99.25% and 37.71%), indicating the prevalence of additive gene action. Analysis of genotypic and phenotypic correlations showed a positive and considerable association among the number of fruits per plant (rg = 0.991, rp = 0.988), fruit weight (rg = 0.927, rp = 0.904), fruit length (rg = 0.891, rp = 0.858), and number of primary branches per plant (rg = 0.716, rp = 0.648). The number of fruits per plant had the highest positive direct effect on fruit yield (0.7713), followed by fruit weight (0.1802) and fruit length (0.0485), as shown by path coefficient analysis. The low residual effect (0.0353) suggested that the studied traits accounted for most of the variation in fruit yield. The findings indicate that selection based on fruit weight, fruit length, number of primary branches, and number of fruits per plant would be effective for the genetic improvement of fruit yield in S. amplexicaulis.