Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) Genotypes Through D2 Statistics

One hundred and twenty-four diverse genotypes of muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) were used for assessment of genetic diversity in muskmelon genotypes through Mahalanobis D2 technique in Randomized Complete Block Design with two replications during the summer 2019. D2 analysis indicated wider genetic diversity among 124 genotypes of muskmelon, which were grouped into 14 clusters. In general, intra-cluster distances were lower than inter-cluster distances, indicating that genotypes included within a cluster tended to diverse less from each other. The maximum inter-cluster distance (D = 1086.24) was found between cluster III and XIV. The minimum inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster I and II (D = 169.03). The intra-cluster distance (D) ranged from 0.0 (cluster- XIII and XIV) to 337.38 (cluster- XI). The cluster XI showed the highest mean values for most of the morphological parameters desirable for yield. The most productive hybrids and diverse segregating materials might come from high yielding parents with high genetic diversity. Therefore, based upon high yielding genotypes and large inter-cluster distances, crossing of the genotypes belonging to cluster XI and V might be used in hybridization programme to produce derived transgressive segregants for traits of interest to improve muskmelon.