Genetics of cluster bearing habit and fruit surface morphology in ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula Roxb.)

Abstract

Luffa acutangula or ridge gourd generally produces solitary and ribbed or ridged fruit, but Satputia a feral form of ridge gourd with hermaphrodite sex form produces non-ribbed fruits in cluster. The present study was conducted to determine the inheritance cluster bearing habit and non-ridge fruit in ridge gourd from the crosses of two hermaphrodite lines (Satputia Long and Satputia Small) which produced small numerous non-ribbed fruits in cluster and five monoecious lines (DRG-2, Pusa Nasdar, Utkal Tripti, Arka Summet and HARG-110), produced solitary long fruit with ten prominent ridges. It was observed that all the F1 plants were solitary bearer and produced ridged fruit. In F2 generation, the observed distribution of plant phenotypes for bearing habit and fruit surface morphology fitted well to the expected ratio of 3:1 (solitary vs cluster) and 15:1 (ridge vs non-ridge) for bearing habit and fruit surface morphology, respectively. The segregation pattern suggested monogenic recessive control of cluster bearing habit, while duplicate recessive genes control ridged fruit surface in Luffa acutangula.