Inheritance Mode of Melon Fruit Characters

admin

Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report 8:34-35 (Article 13) 1985

Abadia, J.
Centro de Edafologia (C.S.I.C.), Murcia, Spain

Gomez-Guillamon, M. L. and J. Cuartero
Estacion Experimental La Mayora (C.S.I.C.), Malaga, Spain

Nuez, F.
Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain

In 1983 we started a program to study the genetics of various characters important in melon breeding. The inheritance mode of nine quantitative melon fruit characters ant eleven qualitative fruit characters were studied for 8 cultivars of different origin as well as for 9 of their hybrids.

The experiment was carried out in two different environments: open-air (Murcia) and plastic-house (Malaya). Possible environmental influences were deduced by comparing parents’ and hybrids’ behavior in the two environments.

Effects owed to dominance towards the greatest parental were detected for the quantitative characters: weight, width, yield, and skin index (in %, expressed as: 200 x thickness of rind zone/width), while dominance acts in the oposite direction in the case of central cavity index (in %, calculated as 100 x wideness of central cavity/width). Inheritance was intermediate for refractometric index and for fruit shape expressed as relationship width/length. Apparently, the increase fruit weight of hybrids is due to the increase in their width and decrease in the size of the central cavity.

Environmental influences were found for the characters weight, width, and skin index, so that when growing under plastic-house, fruits are lighter, narrower and show lower skin index than in the open-air.

The following qualitative characters were studied: skin color, ribbing, netting, writing!, rugosity, flesh color, pistilar scar deformation, fruit cracking, skin spots, and mucilage consistence. Effects owed to dominance were detected for all the characters, except for cracking and for pistilar scar deformation. Dominance was total for rugosity and easy fruit abscission. Cracking inheritance seems to be complex, as effects owed to genie interaction are involved. No environmental influences were observed for the studied characters, except for fruit cracking which only occurred under plastic-house.

1In Spain the word “escrito” is used to describe the set of lines or marks that generally appear on the fruit skin and which look like letters or features made by a pen or some other very thin cutting object, and thereby the word “escrito” has been literally translated into english (“writing”).

Literature Cited

  1. Abadia, J., M. L. Gomez-Guillamon, J. Cuartero, and F. Nuez. 1984.
    Herencia de caracteres cuantitativos en melon. Proceedings of V
    Jornadas de Seleccion y Mejora de plantas horticolas, Logroño.
  2. Gomez-Guillamon, M. L., J. Cuartero, C. Cortes, J. Abadia, J. Costa, and
    F. Nuez. 1983. Descripcion de cultivares de melon (I). I Congreso
    Nacional de Ciencias Horticolas, Valencia.
  3. Gomez-Guillamon, M. L., J. Abadia, J. Cuartero, and F. Nuez. 1984.
    Herencia de caracteres cualitativos en melon. Proceedings of V Jornadas
    de Seleccion y Mejora de plantas horticolas, Logroño.
  4. Lippert, L. F. and M. 0. Hall. 1982. Heritabilities and correlations in
    muskmelons from parent-offspring regression analyses. Journal of
    American Society for Horticultural Science 107(2):217-221.
  5. Nandpuri, R. S. and Surjan Singh y Tarjem Lal. 1974. Study on the
    comparative performance of F1 hybrids and their parents in muskmelon.
    Journal of Research 11(3):230-238. P1. Br. Abs. 1975/10576.
  6. Ramaswamy, B., V. S. Seshadri, and J. C. Sharma. 1977. Inheritance of some
    fruit characters in muskmelon. Sciencia Horticulturae 6(2):107-120. PL.
    Br. Abs. 1977/9919.