Trends in hybrid cucumber development

Abstract

Cucumber which belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, is an
important vegetable crop with regard to production value.
Its immature fruits are mainly consumed as salad, for making
pickles, preparation of cosmetic items, soap and cream. Due
to their high-water content, they have refreshing properties.
Breeders have vigorously pursued improvements in terms
of yield, disease resistance, fruit quality and other
economically important traits. This crop exhibits high degree
of cross-pollination, wide range of genetic variability in
vegetative and fruit characters. A number of studies has
been done in relation to genetic improvement, resistance
for biotic, abiotic stresses, mutation breeding and on
biotechnological aspects. In this background, this review
deals with the breeding achievements in cucumber and a
special emphasis has been laid on the exploitation of genetic
resources for the development hybrids with desirable traits.