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

Document Type : Research paper

Authors

1 Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan

2 Horticultural Research Institute, National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, Pakistan

3 Department of Agriculture & Agribusiness Management Faculty of Science University of Karachi

4 Plant Genetic Resources Institute, National Agricultural Research Center, Islamabad, Pakistan

5 Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan

6 Department of Agriculture & Agribusiness Management University of Karachi

7 Department of Plant Sciences College of Agriculture and Marine Sciences Sultan Qaboos University Muscat, Oman

Abstract

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 9 and 7 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 (0.843g**) as well with the number of fruits per plant (0.802**), whereas principal component analysis also depicts a high variation status of 42.05% and 28.80% 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.

Keywords

International Journal of Horticultural Science and Technology
Volume 12, Issue 4
September 2025
Pages 445-464

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History

  • Receive Date: 26 December 2023
  • Revise Date: 27 April 2024
  • Accept Date: 22 May 2024

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