Morphological, Reproductive and Biochemical Diversity in Luffa (Luffa aegyptiaca) Cultivars

Cucurbitaceae comprises a variety of vegetables that have global economic importance. However, many of these vegetables remain unexplored in terms of their genetic diversity for morphological and biochemical traits. The present research trial was conducted to categorize, characterize, and conserve the available luffa gourd germplasm in Pakistan. Sixteen luffa gourd cultivars were kept under observation. Morphological, reproductive traits and biochemical traits were studied. Interspecific diversity of the entries of experiment was investigated by cluster analysis similarity matrix of entries. Furthermore, principal coordinate analysis was performed in order to understand the differentiation among the species and correlation matrix to observe the pattern among the variables. Results revealed considerable morphological variation for vegetative characteristics, reproductive traits, and biochemical attributes. Cluster analysis depicts two main groups of ۹ and ۷ genotypes while each of these was further divided into two and three subgroups respectively. The results of phenotypic correlation studies, fruit yield showed positive high significant correlated with fruit weight (۰.۸۴۳g**) as well with the number of fruits per plant (۰.۸۰۲**), whereas principal component analysis also depicts a high variation status of ۴۲.۰۵% and ۲۸.۸۰% of total variation based on mineral composition, and reproductive and biochemical traits. Conclusively, results confirm the existence of a substantial amount of inter/intraspecific genetic diversity and relationships among luffa gourd genotypes. Thus, a careful selection of genotypes having high genetic variation could be utilized for hybridization programs, and in addition, best-performing cultivars could also be used for producing new hybrids of luffa gourd.

کلیدواژه ها:

Antioxidants ، Cluster Analysis ، Luffa aegyptiaca ، Morphological diversity