Abstract
Round gourd (Praecitrullus fistulosus (Stocks) Pangalo), generally familiar as Indian round gourd, apple gourd and Indian baby pumpkin, is a squash type cucurbit, cultivated for its immature fruit, a vegetable notably trendy in South Asia. This rare squash type gourd is native to India. For carrying out this research, 25 round gourd accessions were obtained from National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan, for estimation of their morphological variations on the basis of different vegetative and reproductive attributes. Multivariate analysis of variance (Principal component analysis and Cluster analysis) was performed for grouping round gourd accessions on the basis of similarities in morphological parameters of leaves, vine, flowers and fruits using XLSTAT (2017). One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was practiced for statistical analysis and significant variations between means were recorded by Duncan’s multiple range (DMR) test at P < 5% for quantitative data of morphological characters. Morphological variation was most apparent in leaf size, leaf color, fruit shape and fruit skin color. Accession 20399 was morphologically very close to other accessions except for its cordate leaf shape whereas rest of the accessions had lobed leaves. Results of the principle component analysis for quantitative morphological traits indicated that the first two PCs explained 32.21% and 14.91% (a total of 47.12%) of the total variation. Cluster analysis grouped all round gourd accessions of Pakistan into two main clusters with 61.65% variability within class and 38.35% diversity between classes. The work presented here is the first report about morphological characterization of Pakistani P. fistulosus germplasm.
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We gratefully acknowledge National Agricultural Research Centre (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan for providing us with valuable germplasm for conducting this study.
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Shahid, A., Ayyub, C.M., Abbas, M. et al. Assessment of genetic diversity in round gourd (Praecitrullus fistulosus) germplasm of Pakistan considering morphological characters. Genet Resour Crop Evol 66, 215–224 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-018-0707-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10722-018-0707-5