Correlated inheritance of fruit neck with fruit length and linkage relations with 10 other characteristics of cucumber

Abstract

The inheritance of cucumber fruit neck size and its linkage relationships with the fruit length and 10 other characteristics was investigated . Frequency distributions and the means of generations indicate intermediate inheritance for neck size and fruit length . Correlation and regression analysis suggest strong linkage between fruit neck size and fruit length . Chi square analysis of the F2 and BC generations indicate independent assortment of the fruit neck size and the following characters : bitterness, female sex expression, spine color, spine size, warted fruit, uniform color of immature fruit, mature fruit color, dull fruit skin, epidermal structure, and powdery mildew resistance .

The major‐effect quantitative trait locus Fnl7.1 encodes a late embryogenesis abundant protein associated with fruit neck length in cucumber

“…An alignment of genomic DNA sequences between the parental lines identified 25 SNPs and 7 InDels in the promoter region of CsFnl7.1 (Figure S2) . Previous studies have revealed strong associations between fruit length and neck length (Fanourakis and Tzifaki, ; Yuan et al , ). Consistent with these observations, the correlation between the two traits was significant in the 1,231 F 2 plants (Pearson's correlation coefficients r 2 = 0.68, P = 0.05) derived from Jin5‐508 and YN, suggesting that the two traits may share at least some common genetic factors.…”

“…The results presented support the findings of Qi et al (), in which natural cucumber populations could be roughly classified into East Asian, Eurasian, India and XIS groups. In general, the Eurasian accessions—mainly American pickle and European slicer cucumber varieties—have a short neck or no neck; while East Asian accessions—mainly north China and Japanese long cucumber varieties—exhibit the long neck phenotype (Fanourakis and Tzifaki, ). This is supported by our geographical distribution and phylogenetic analysis (Figure ).…”

“…Fruit neck (also called 'stalk') is defined as the first part of the cucumber fruit, joining it with the pedicel. It has no internal placenta and no spines or tubercles on the surface (Fanourakis and Tzifaki, 1992). The fruit neck length (FNL) at harvest varies from 1 to 12 cm, accounting for as much as 35% of the total fruit length (Zhao et al, 2015).…”

“…The fruit neck length (FNL) at harvest varies from 1 to 12 cm, accounting for as much as 35% of the total fruit length (Zhao et al, 2015). Typically, FNL directly affects appearance because of the non-uniform diameter along the fruit, and it produces an undesirable taste owing to the absence of fleshy tissue and the occurrence of bitterness (Che and Zhang, 2019;Fanourakis and Tzifaki, 1992). In addition, the neck is easily broken, resulting in damage during harvesting, packing and transport (Fanourakis and Tzifaki, 1992).…”

“…Typically, FNL directly affects appearance because of the non-uniform diameter along the fruit, and it produces an undesirable taste owing to the absence of fleshy tissue and the occurrence of bitterness (Che and Zhang, 2019;Fanourakis and Tzifaki, 1992). In addition, the neck is easily broken, resulting in damage during harvesting, packing and transport (Fanourakis and Tzifaki, 1992). Thus, the presence of the fruit neck constitutes an important quality issue in fresh cucumber markets.…”