Morphological Diversity Assessment of Local Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) Germplasm in Bangladesh

Abstract

Purpose: Local muskmelon germplasm is being lost because of genetic erosion caused by the replacement of hybrid varieties, lack of conservation climate change, etc. Particularly, the foremost requisites of the industry for muskmelon is a genetic diversity assessment of landraces for identification and trait improvement. Therefore, this study was conducted to estimate the genetic diversity of muskmelon germplasm Research Method: Forty-two muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) germplasm was collected from different geographical territories of Bangladesh and was studied to identify the morphological diversity among the germplasm using an augmented design. Thirty-four (34) agro-morphological characters were recorded, of which twenty-eight (28) were scored as qualitative characters and six (6) were measured as quantitative characters. Findings: In qualitative characters, variations in morphometrics were found such as the fruit’s shape, and different color patterns of fruit skin and flesh, etc. A maximum coefficient of variation of 73.5 % was estimated in fruit weight. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of different quantitative traits was used to distinguish muskmelon germplasm. The cumulative percentage of variance reached 75.7% by the first two PCA components. Germplasm RC-186, IAH-194, IAH-207, AHM-15, IAH-197, IAH-345, AC-422, and RAI-239, were divergent from others concerning traits such as early maturity, fruit length, width, and weight. Clustering of accessions by D2statistic resulted in five clusters and cluster III was found to be the largest containing twenty-two (22) accessions. Value: This research work will be helpful for the further development of the muskmelon variety and the improvement of specific characters.