Inheritance of sex expression and fruit bursting in melons

Abstract

Diversity in sex expression within genera is more prevalent among cucurbits than in any other plant families. In melons six different sex forms have been reported (Poole and Grimball, 1939). The andromonoecious nature of muskmelon involves tedious emasculation of the perfect flowers of the female line for hybrid seed production. Monoecious lines reduced the extent of self pollination in female parents, when seed production is done under open-pollination with adjacent rows of male and female parents (Foster, 1968). Since the use of monoecy exclude emasculation it can reduce the time required for hand pollination by 50% and enhance fruit set by 40-70% as compared to 5-10% in the andromonoecious parent. For development of hybrids and open pollinated varieties in muskmelon, character association its variation and inheritance pattern with sensitivity to environment is of utmost consideration. (Pandey et al., 2011) Another prevalent