Development and Maintenance of Tropical Gynoecious Inbred Lines in Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) and Validation by DNA Markers

Abstract

Gynoecious parthenocarpic hybrids in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) have great importance for its successful cultivation under protected conditions to enhance productivity and quality. Work was undertaken to develop and maintain the gynoecious inbred lines from the gynoecious parthenocarpic cucumber hybrids (Silyon hybrid, Pickling cucumber-1 (PC-1), Pickling cucumber-2 (PC-2) and Pune cucumber hybrid) at ICAR–Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru. Four slicing cucumber lines, namely IIHR-434, IIHR-435, IIHR-436 and IIHR-437, were raised to develop segregating populations. The individual plant selections were made in F2 population and through the pedigree method. These lines were forwarded to F4 generation based on the gynoecy sex expression, and mean performance of all four gynoecious lines was recorded. The F4 populations were validated at phenotypic as well as through SSR markers linked to gynoecious trait. The SSR-02021 and SSR-18718 genotypic data showed that, most of the plants are gynoecious in all four advance gynoecious lines. These inbred lines are further utilized to develop gynoecious parthenocarpic cucumber F1 hybrids.