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Variance component analysis of plant architectural traits and fruit yield in melon

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Summary

A cross was made between a unique highly branched, early flowering line, U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) 846-1 (P1; 7 to 11 lateral branches), and ‘Topmark’ (P2; 2 to 4 lateral branches), a U.S. Western Ship** melon, to produce an array of 119 F3 families. Subsequently, a genetic analysis was conducted at Arlington and Hancock, Wisconsin in 2001 to evaluate the segregating progeny for factors likely involved in yield-formation, including days to anthesis, percentage of plants with early pistillate flowering, primary branch number, fruit number and weight per plant, average weight per fruit, percentage of plants with predominantly crown fruit set, and percentage of plants with early maturing fruit. Although, genotype × environment (G × E) interactions were important for some traits (e.g., fruit number and fruit weight), considerable additive and/or dominance variance was detected for all traits. This research provides critical data associated with highly branched melon germplasm including trait correlations and heritabilies (broad- and narrow-sense ranged between 0.28 and 0.91) that used judiciously will allow the development high yielding melon cultivars with early, basally concentrated fruit suitable for once-over or machine harvesting operations.

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Abbreviations

AWF:

average weight per fruit

BLUE:

best linear unbiased estimation

BLUP:

best linear unbiased prediction

DA:

days to anthesis

FN:

fruit number per plant

FW:

fruit weight per plant

PB:

primary branch number

PCF:

percentage of plants with predominantly crown fruit set

PMF:

percentage of plants with early maturing fruit

PPF:

percentage of plants with early pistillate flowering

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Advance Opportunity Fellowship (AOF) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science (GEM) fellowship, and the National Science Foundation K-Through-Infinity (KTI) fellowship for their support provided for graduate student training. Mention of trade name, proprietary product, or specific equipment does not constitute a guarantee or warranty by the USDA and does not imply its approval to the exclusion of other products that may be suitable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Vegetable Crops Unit, Department of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin, 1575 Linden Dr, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Juan E. Zalapa & Jack E. Staub

  2. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Agricultural research Station, 1636 East Alisal, Salinas, CA, 93905, USA

    J. D. McCreight

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  1. Juan E. Zalapa
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Correspondence to Juan E. Zalapa.

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Zalapa, J.E., Staub, J.E. & McCreight, J.D. Variance component analysis of plant architectural traits and fruit yield in melon. Euphytica 162, 129–143 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-007-9622-0

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