Inheritance of firmness in raw cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) fruit

Abstract

Inheritance of raw cucumber fruit texture (Magness-Taylor Fruit Pressure Tester firmness) was investigated over a 4-year period from 1971–1974. Results from 2 separate but related experiments suggested that firmness was quantitatively inherited with sufficient additive effects to permit gain from selection. In a selection study within 4 F2 populations derived from crosses between ‘firm’ (‘Chipper’ and ‘Gy3’) and ‘soft’ (‘Mincu’ and ‘Green F’) fruit type cultivars, variation among and within F3 and F4 families was significant but overall family means were not significantly higher than the high parent in any of the 4 crosses. Narrow sense heritability estimates for fruit texture were 0.80 in the ‘Mincu’ × ‘Chipper’ population and 0.77 in the ‘Green F’ × ‘Chipper’, ‘Mincu’ × ‘Gy3’, and ‘Gy3’ × ‘Green F’ crosses. In a separate experiment, generation means analysis was used to assess the mode of gene action in 2 crosses: ‘Green F’ × ‘Chipper’, and ‘Gy3’ × ‘Green F’. Additive genetic effects accounted for 98.8% and 99.3% of the total genetic variation within each cross, respectively.