Inheritance of fruit flesh colour in some botanical varieties of muskmelon, Cucumis melo

Abstract: This study was carried out from 2016 to 2017 at Agricultural Research Center, Cairo, Egypt. From former evaluation work on several inbred lines of melon, eight inbred lines were chosen as parents for 4 crosses, viz., RIL D51 × RIL 154 (C. melo var. cantaloupensis, galia type), RIL Mg₅ × RIL 148 (C. melo var. cantaloupensis, charentais type), RIL A10 × RIL A5 (C. melo var. ananas) and RIL Si819 × RIL Ab11 (C. melo var. aegyptiaca) to interpret the genetics of fruit flesh colour. Parental, F₁, F_1r, F₂ and BCs populations of each cross were sown in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 4 replicates in the 2017 early summer season in open field using a drip-irrigation system. One pair of genes governed the fruit flesh colour character in all the four crosses. The type of dominance was no dominance of the dark green over orange flesh colour or the reverse in the first hybrid, complete dominance of the reddish orange over dark green flesh colour in the second hybrid, partial dominance of the white over orange flesh colour in the third hybrid and complete dominance of the orange over greenish white flesh colour in the fourth hybrid. Mid and better parent heterosis values were 0.00 and -15.50 % in the first hybrid, 25.00 and 0.00 % in the second hybrid, -57.89 and – 77.46 in the third hybrid and 44.90 and 0.00 % in the fourth one, respectively. Hundred percent broad sense heritability (BSH) was recorded in the four hybrids, but narrow sense heritability (NSH) differed from moderate to elevated, being 36.5, 72.15, 28.48 and 26.46 % in the first, second, third and fourth hybrids, respectively. These results proved that melon flesh colour is influenced by genotypic variability. Also, the melon flesh colour inheritance was complex and this may be due to flesh colour gene has multiple alleles (polygenic inheritance).