General and specific combining ability for fruit-related traits in watermelon (Citrullus Lanatus) using Griffing’s method I

One of the key goals of watermelon breeding is to develop superior hybrids with enhanced yield and quality. hybrid efficiency depends on the general (gca) and specific (sca) combinatorial abilities of the inbred lines used in crosses. a complete diallel analysis was conducted to evaluate the breeding values of five watermelon ecotypes: orzoeiyeh (p1), hejrak (p2), gerd (p3), neyshabour (p4), and yazd (p5). while most studied traits showed high gca effects, all displayed significant sca effects. a high baker’s ratio, coupled with gca being greater than sca for days to fruit formation, number of fruits per plant, days to fruit maturity, and fruit weight, suggests the involvement of both additive and non-additive gene effects. conversely, baker’s ratios for fruit length (0.44), fruit rind thickness (0.42), and fruit sugar content (0.2) indicated the dominance of non-additive gene effects, whereas ratios for fruit weight (0.56), fruit rind weight (0.51), and fruit flesh weight (0.57) suggested an equal contribution of additive and non-additive gene effects in controlling these traits. parents p4 and p2 demonstrated the best gca for fruit number per plant and fruit quality, respectively. based on sca findings, the p2×p4 and p1×p2 crosses are recommended for producing high-yielding and high-quality hybrids, respectively.