DIALLEL ANALYSIS FOR VARIABILITY IN BITTER GOURD (MOMORDICA-CHARANTIA)

Diallel analysis of 36 F-1, hybrids of bitter gourd (Momordica charant ia L.) involving 9 parents (excluding reciprocals) for 8 quantitative characters indicated frequent occurrence of dominant alleles for inher itance of the characters studied. Both additive and non-additive gene actions were involved in the character expression. Unequal distributio n of genes at loci showing dominance was common in the parental popula tion, indicating the interplay of partial dominance and dominance in c haracter expression. Presence of dominance and complementary type of g ene action along with low narrow-sense heritability for yield indicate s that heterosis breeding would be more advantageous to get higher fru it yield in bitter gourd.