ABSTRACT
This study was conducted at Kaha Vegetable Research Farm
(K.V.R.F), Qalubia governorate during the period from 2015 to 2017 to
determine the genetic variability, and heritability among some snake
cucumber inbred lines. The treatments consist of fifteen snake cucumber
inbred lines, laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) and
replicated three times. Inbred lines were evaluated for nine characters to
determine variability and estimate heritability. Analysis of variance revealed
highly significant (P<0.05) for all studied characters. L17, L12, L19, L20,
L23, L24 and L27 were high resistant and resistant for powdery mildew.
The results indicated the presence of substantial variability among the inbred
lines. Genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), phenotypic coefficient of
variation (PCV) and broad Sense heritability (h2) estimates ranges from to
8.65% - 74.24%, 9.03% - 76.84% and 84.33 to 98.96% respectively. The
high estimates of GCV and PCV in number of fruit plant (64.62 and 68.16
% respectively), sex ratio (74.24 and 76.84% respectively), and total yield
plant (64.00 and 69.69% respectively) indicated the existence of variability
and selection can be done. Whereas high estimate of h2 for all the tested
traits indicated that these characters were highly heritable and selection can
be imposed. L19 and L24 were resistance for powdery mildew and had best
marketable yield and fruit quality. Therefore, it is recommended for an
effective selection of those characters which could be adopted for cultivar
improvement program and more research is needed to validate the findings.