Genetic resources of spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb. ex Willd.): an underexplored nutritious vegetable from tribal regions of eastern India

Abstract

Spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb. ex Willd.) is a highly nutritious and underutilized vegetable containing high amount of protein as compared to other cucurbitaceous vegetables. Twenty-six accessions of spine gourd (M. dioica Roxb.), collected from eastern India, were evaluated to study the diversity and other genetic parameters. The estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation and phenotypic coefficient of variation for all the characters indicated that selection can be done on the basis of phenotype alone. On the basis of cluster analysis, spine gourd accessions can be categorized into three distinct groups. The accessions of spine gourd from eastern India showed an immense variation and can be used as a potential source of germplasm for crop improvement. The results presented here on nature and magnitude of genetic variability and diversity existing in this species will provide the foundation for designing an efficient spine gourd breeding programme. As spine gourd is distributed widely almost throughout India, further collections from Peninsular and Western India are suggested for maximum diversity sampling.