Predominance of duplicate epistasis on inheritance of important yield attributing traits in ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.)

Abstract: An experiment was conducted on ridge gourd in six generations i.e., P₁, P₂, F₁, F₂, BC₁ and BC₂ of VRG-24 x VRG-13 and Swarna Manjari x Arka Prasan in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The main aim of the study was to investigate the genetic mechanisms controlling yield and quality traits through generation mean analysis. Epistatic gene effects were found to play a crucial role in regulating most of the traits studied, except for days to male flowering, days to female flowering, node of first female flower, average fruit weight, and rind thickness in various crosses. Duplicate epistasis was particularly prominent across the majority of traits, suggesting that these traits could be effectively exploited through heterosis breeding and reciprocal recurrent selection strategies. Additionally, complementary epistasis was observed in the cross VRG-24 x VRG-13 for traits such as node of first female flower, number of female flowers per vine, and number of fruits per vine. This highlights the potential of the VRG-24 x VRG-13 cross to produce desirable transgressive segregants with enhanced trait combinations.