PhD Thesis
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Item Development of gynoecious genotypes with superior fruit quality in bitter gourd (Momordica Charantia L.) through marker assisted breeding(Department of Vegetable Science, College of Agriculture ,Vellanikkara, 2024-02-06) Anju M Sunny.; Pradeepkumar, TThe doctoral study entitled ‘Development of gynoecious genotypes with superior fruit quality in bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) through marker assisted breeding’ was undertaken with the objective of developing gynoecious bitter gourd lines with superior fruit quality through marker assisted breeding and to analyze the genetics of sex expression and fruit quality by generating F2 and back cross population. The work was carried out in the experimental field of the Department of Vegetable Science, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara. Gynoecious line KAUMCGy- 101, identified from the Department of Vegetable Science, and three monoecious lines viz., Preethi, Priyanka, and MC 133 were used for the hybridization. Six hybrids were produced by crossing gynoecious inbred as both male and female parents. The hybrids were, Preethi × KAU-MCGy-101, Priyanka × KAUMCGy- 101, MC133 × KAU-MCGy-101, KAU-MCGy-101 × Preethi, KAU-MCGy- 101 × Priyanka and KAU-MCGy-101 × MC133. All the hybrids with gynoecious line as male or female parent exhibited high heterosis for earliness attributing traits like days to first female flower opening, node bearing first female flower, and days to first harvest. The traits such as a lower sex ratio and a greater number of fruits per plant contributed to higher yields in these hybrids. The superiority of hybrids having a gynoecious line as a maternal parent is prominent in the present study. The correlation studies revealed a positive correlation between fruit length (0.569), fruit weight (0.612), number of seeds (0.507), and number of harvests (0.619) with yield. While days to first female flower opening (-0.386), node bearing first female flower (-0.244), fruit girth (-0.018), and days to first harvest (-0.285) showed a non-significant negative correlation. Path analysis showed a positive direct effect of fruit weight (0.568), fruit girth (0.155), number of seeds (0.579), days to first harvest (0.009), number of harvests (0.755), and number of fruits per plant (0.036) on yield per plant. The sensory attributes, nutritional potentials, and shelf life of six bitter gourd hybrids and their parents were evaluated. Bitter gourd fruits with white or light green fruits were found to have a more appealing flavor and appearance than dark green fruits, resulting in a higher overall acceptability rating. The hybrid, KAU-MCGy-101 × MC 133 was found superior with 17.05 mg/100g calcium. Preethi and KAUMCGy- 101 × Priyanka exhibited maximum shelf life among the parents and hybrids, respectively. Among the hybrids, the cross KAU-MCGy-101 × Priyanka was superior with respect to yield and quality traits (fruit weight- 172.47 g, number of fruits per plant- 69.67 and yield per plant- 9.15 kg). The genetics of economically significant horticultural traits in the cross KAU-MCGy-101 x Priyanka was studied resorting generation mean analysis. The results of the A, B, C, and D scaling tests indicate that all the traits, except for days to the first female flower opening, do not adhere to an additive dominance model. The significant and positive additive effect (d) was observed for the number of tubercles and number of fruits per plant, indicating that the additive effect of the genes is predominant and that the selection of these traits should be delayed to later generations. Regarding the yield, the interaction effect of dominance x dominance (l) was highly significant, while the other interaction effects were insignificant. Therefore, recurrent selection is necessary for improving this trait. A complementary type of epistasis was observed for the number of fruits per plant, while all other traits were observed to be of the duplicate type. The χ2 analysis for goodness of fit indicated that gynoecy in the line KAUMCGy- 101 is controlled by a single recessive gene (gy-1). The inheritance pattern of fruit color indicates that green fruit color is dominant over white. The present study identified two gynoecious lines from the F2 population namely, KAU-MCGy-101-1 and KAU-MCGy-101-2 (green and light green fruited respectively). These gynoecious lines had better fruit quality and hold immense potential for future breeding programs in bitter gourd improvement. Marker-assisted selection is considered one of the important strategies for identifying different sex forms in crop plants. The present investigation resulted in identifying one SNP primer that could produce polymorphism between the monoecious and gynoecious parents. The six exonic regions with flanking introns of the gene floral homeotic protein AGAMOUS-like (McAG2) and two exonic regions with flanking introns of the gene ACO1 were sequenced by designing exons-specific primer pairs. The primer NETBG2 developed based on the exon 2 region of the gene ACO1 accounts for eight valid SNPs within the sequenced region of the gynoecious parent used in this study. The study confirmed the monogenic recessive nature of gynoecy. The improved gynoecious lines identified will help in developing cultivars with a higher proportion of female flowers. The results of the molecular work revealed the role of the 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate oxidase (ACO1) gene in the sex expression of the bitter gourd. The SNPs identified can be used for further studies on the SNP-based marker development for identifying gynoecious plants and have the potential in marker assisted breeding based on gynoecy in bitter gourd.