Estimation of heterosis and inbreeding depression in bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Mol) Standl]

In the present investigation, 10 lines and 4 testers of bottle gourd were taken in line x tester analysis for analyzing the magnitude of heterosis and degree of inbreeding depression studied for 10 characters of bottle gourd. Some crosses showed high degree of heterosis coupled with high degree of inbreeding depression indicating thereby that there is a greater role of non-additive gene action controlling the expression of those characters. In contrast, there are few crosses where low heterosis is linked with high degree of inbreeding depression. This indicates that, probably, gene having additive effects are cancelled leading to appreciable degree of inbreeding depression for such characters. In addition, crosses showing high degree of heterosis are linked with low degree of inbreeding depression indicating that, possibly, genes with additive as well as non-additive gene effect play important role in expression of heterosis in such cases.