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Ahmad Raza, Chaudhary Muhammad Ayyub, Muhammad Awais Ghani and Nisar Ahmed

University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is the only taxon with 2n= 2x= 14 chromosomes in genus cucumis. Twenty five germplasm of cucumber collected from Ayub Agricultural Research Institute, (AARI) Faisalabad and National Agriculture Research Center (NARC) Islamabad, Pakistan. This study was carried out at pomology lab, Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan to find out biochemical diversity in fruits of selected cucumber germplasm. The outcome of this experiment will aid in breeding nutritionally better germplasm for improving their economic returns. Cluster analysis and principle component analysis were performed for classifying germplasm of cucumber on the basis of similarities and dissimilarities in biochemical attributes of nitrogen contents, moisture contents, potassium contents, phosphorous contents, Ascorbic acid, protein contents, sodium contents and calcium contents by employing XLSTAT 2018. Results of principle component analysis (PCA) for biochemical traits showed that major first two principle components/factor showed 38.84% and 16.93% (total of 55.77%) of the total variability. Cluster analysis of each germplasm of cucumber from Pakistan clustered germplasm into main two clusters with 48.09% within class diversity and 51.91% between classes variability. Diversity in fruit mineral contents was highest in C-3428, C-571.