Developing bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) population with a very high proportion of pistillate flowers

Abstract

During the summer season (February sown) of 2000, three gynoecious plants, viz., Gy23 Gy63 and Gy263B were obtained in three germplasm populations. In the July 2000, planting, segregation in the F1 generation for gynoecious and monoecious plants was observed due to the existence fheterozygous gene(s) for gynoecism in the utilizedmale plants. It was concluded that the gynoecism trait in identified plants was heritable and under thecontrol of certain major recessive gene(s) (2). In a F1 cross, developed using Gy63 (gynoecious plant obtained in VRBT-63 population) and VRBT-63(monoecious plant), one monoecious plant (with87.7% pistillate flowers) was obtained and selfed. the proportion of pistillate flowers in F2 and F3 generations revealed that like five F2 plants, plants of all the five F3 populations hadvery high proportion (> 90%) of pistillate flowers,which ranged from 91.0% in line 333/2 to 99.3% in line 323/4. All F3 populations were also characterized by the recovery of at least one absolute gynoecious plant (100% pistillate flowers). During the same season, PIBG-1 an improved variety and Pusa Hybrid-1 a promising hybrid had 11.3% and13.4% pistillate flowers, respectively. Further, unlike most of the bitter gourd populations, all plants of these five populations were characterized by the emergence of pistillate flowers at lower nodes. The maximum of 70% pistillate flowers has been reported in a bitter gourd line, which was utilized to develop hybrids (1). Hence five F3 populations developed during this study are not only promising for yielding increased number of fruits, but also for their utilization in the hybrid seed production after further advancement of 2-3 generations through selection of gynoecious plants and sib-pollinating with plants having a very high proportion of pistillate flower