Molecular Diversity and Genetic Relationships between Parental Lines and their Fl of Cultivars Cucurbita Moschata Using Rapd Analysis

Abstract

Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) is a widely grown and economically important species and nutritious due to high content of vitamin A which can play a vital role in meeting the vegetable shortage and nutritional problem. Present investigation was carried out at the Field Laboratory and Plant Biotechnology Laboratory of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna, Molecular characteristics were studied by using four RAPD primers to determine the genetic diversity and relationship between parental [Sweety (V1) and Local (V2)] and their F1 hybrids. Morphological characteristics of Cucurbita showed a wide range of variation between hybrid and local cultivars. Number of male/female flowers showed significance at P < 0.01 which means the desired ratio of flowers for crossing. Among the parents and hybrids the RAPD analysis showed a total of 16 bands of which 14 showed polymorphisms which represents 90.84% polymorphisms. The similarity values based on Jaccard's similarity coefficient between F1and the donor parents plant was (0.000-1.000). Dendrogram analysis delineated two major clusters of which 60% F1 showed similarity like male (V2) and the rest like female (V1) donor plant. The coefficient of similarity and UPGMA revealed two main clusters among 2 parents and 15 F1 genotypes of Cucurbita moschata except accession number 12, i.e., cluster A and cluster Bat 93.33% overall similarity and 6.66% variation within parents and the Fl. Cophenetic Correlation Coefficient (CP) 0.621 was confirmed the strongest correlation between the two parents and their F1 progeny. This study demonstrates that RAPD markers are useful in assessing genetic diversity and relationships among cucurbits for further improvement of pumpkin genotypes through breeding program.