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Generation means analysis of plant architectural traits and fruit yield in melon
Author(s) -
Zalapa J. E.,
Staub J. E.,
McCreight J. D.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
plant breeding
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1439-0523
pISSN - 0179-9541
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0523.2006.01273.x
Subject(s) - melon , anthesis , biology , horticulture , cucumis , epistasis , botany , cultivar , gene , genetics
Unique architectural phenotypes have the potential for increasing yield in commercial melon ( Cucumis melo L.). Therefore, a generation means analysis was conducted to investigate the inheritance of architectural traits (days to anthesis, primary branch number, fruit number and weight, and average weight per fruit). Progeny (F 1 , F 2 , BC 1 P 1 and BC 1 P 2 ) from a cross between US Department of Agriculture (USDA) line, USDA 846‐1 (P 1 ) and ‘TopMark’ (P 2 ) were evaluated at Arlington (AR) and Hancock (HCK), Wisconsin in 2001. Significant (P ≤ 0.05) environment effects and genotype × environment interactions (G × E) analyses necessitated analysis by location. Significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) among parents and generations were observed for all traits, and the two parental lines differed significantly for primary branch number, fruit number and average weight per fruit. Additive gene effects were most important in governing primary branch number and fruit number per plant, while dominance and epistatic genetic effects mainly controlled days to anthesis, fruit weight per plant and average weight per fruit. Narrow‐sense heritabilities were 0.62 (AR) for days to anthesis, 0.71 (AR) and 0.76 (HCK) for primary branch number, 0.68 (AR) and 0.70 (HCK) for fruit weight per plant, 0.33 (AR) and 0.45 (HCK) for fruit weight per plant, and 0.06 (AR) and 0.79 (HCK) for average weight per fruit. Estimations of the least number of effective factors for primary branch number were relatively consistent at both AR (approx. 4) and HCK (approx. 2). Results suggest that introgression of yield‐related genes from highly branched melon types (e.g. USDA 846‐1) into US Western Shipping germplasm may aid in the development of high‐yielding cultivars with concentrated fruit set suitable for machine and/or hand‐harvesting operations.