Combining ability analysis in relation to heterosis for yield and its component in bottle gourd

Bottle gourd is an important monoecious and highly cross-pollinated cucurbitaceous vegetable crop grown in warm climatic regions of the world. Like other crops, successful exploitation of hybrid vigour also depends on selection of parental lines with good combing ability. The line x testers analysis has been found as a useful biometrical technique for understanding the nature of quantitatively inherited traits and to ascertain the characteristics of parents by the estimation of general and specific combing abilities. Hence, an attempt has been made to study the estimates of combing abilities in selected genotypes and its relation with heterosis to identify the potential parental combinations to get the super hybrid in bottle gourd.