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As fall-sown onions are seeded earlier, an increase in premature seedstalk (bolting) incidence is observed for bolting-susceptible cultivars. The mechanism of resistance for bolting-resistant cultivars is not well known. Four fall-sown cultivars (Daybreak, NuMex Mesa, NuMex Sweetpak, Texas Early White), that differed in their bolting susceptibility, were seeded on four separate dates in September, each one week apart, in Las Cruces, N.M., to observe their growth and performance at each seeding date. Plant height and leaf number were measured monthly throughout the growing season from 10 plants in each plot. Prior to harvest, the number of plants that bolted were counted. When 80% of the plants in a plot were mature, the bulbs were harvested and the maturity date, disease resistance, bulb yield, and percentage of single centers were recorded. In general, earlier seeding dates resulted in larger plants with more leaves than later seeding dates when compared early in the growing season. By harvest time, plants from later seeding dates were comparable in height and had produced more leaves than earlier seeded plants. Plant height of `NuMex Mesa' (bolting resistant) was less than the plant height of bolting-susceptible cultivars. Bolting-resistant and bolting-susceptible cultivars produced similar numbers of leaves throughout the season. The mechanism of bolting resistance for `NuMex Mesa' may be a smaller plant size and/or a greater plant size required for receptivity to bolting-inducing temperatures as compared to bolting-susceptible cultivars. In general, cultivars exhibited less bolting, later maturity dates, and an increase in bulb yield with a delay in seeding.

Realized heritability estimates of bolting percentage, pink root and fusarium basal rot severities and incidences, and percentage of single-centered bulbs were estimated for half-sib families of an intermediate-day, open-pollinated onion (Allium cepa L.) population using selection response analysis. Half-sib families were selected based upon an index that equally weighted bolting percentage, pink root and fusarium basal rot severities and incidences, percentage of single-centered bulbs, and bulb quality. Families were subjected to one cycle of half-sib family recurrent selection. Pink root and fusarium basal rot severity was reduced by 17% and 7%, respectively, with realized heritability estimates of 1.28 and 0.65, respectively. More progress for pink root severity was made than was selected. Disease incidence was reduced by 18% and 12%, respectively, with heritability estimates of 0.65 and 0.60, respectively. Very little progress was made for the percentage of single-centered bulbs and this was reflected in a heritability estimate of 0.17. Selection based upon multiple characters at the same time may reduce the effectiveness of making improvements in a single trait. However even with low to moderate heritability, improvements were made, and suggest that further improvements can be made through selection.

Progress was measured in four populations of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) improved by recurrent selection. The populations were the North Carolina wide base pickle (NCWBP), medium base pickle (NCMBP), elite pickle 1 (NCEP1), and hardwickii 1 (NCH1). Families from each of three cycles (early, intermediate, and late) from each population were randomly chosen and crossed with Gy 14 to produce gynoecious hybrids. Gy 14 is a gynoecious inbred used commonly as a female parent in the production of pickling cucumber hybrids. Once the plants had 10% oversized (>51 mm in diameter) fruit, plots were sprayed with paraquat to simulate once-over harvest. Selection cycles were evaluated for total, early, and marketable yield, and fruit shape. Testcross performance for fruit shape rating increased over cycles for the NCWBP and NCMBP populations when tested in either season. Testcross performance for total and early yield of the NCEP1 population tested in the spring decreased with selection, but remained constant over cycles in the summer season. The majority of yield traits in each population remained unchanged across selection cycles. Of the four populations studied, the NCMBP population had the greatest gain (7%) in testcross performance over cycles and averaged over all traits. In addition, testcross performance for fruit shape rating had the greatest gain (11%) with selection and averaged over populations. Years and seasons greatly influenced testcross performance for fruit yield and shape rating. In most instances, the fruit yield and shape of Gy 14 was higher than the testcross performance of population-cycle combinations. The performance of several families exceeded that of Gy 14 when testcross combinations were made. Those families could be selected for use in the development of elite cultivars. Chemical name used: 1,1'-dimethyl-4,4'-bipyridinium ion (paraquat).

Fruit yield, earliness, and quality have low to moderate heritability, but are traits of major importance in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). The objective of this study was to determine the changes made in those traits using recurrent selection in three slicing cucumber populations (NCMBS, NCES1, and NCBA1). During population improvement, one or two replications of 200 to 335 half-sib families were evaluated in the spring season for five traits: total, early, and marketable fruit per plot, fruit shape rating, and a simple weighted index (SWI = 0.2(total yield)/2 + 0.3(early yield) + 0.2(% marketable)/10 + 0.3(fruit shape). Families from each population were intercrossed in an isolation block during the summer season using remnant seeds of the best 10% selected using the index. Response was evaluated using a split-plot treatment arrangement in a randomized complete block design with 32 replications in each of two seasons (spring and summer). Whole plots were the three populations, and subplots were the 11 cycles (cycles 0 to 9 plus checks). We measured improvement in performance of the populations in a selected (spring) and unselected environment (summer). Significant gains were made for all traits in all populations over the 9 to 10 cycles of recurrent selection. Greatest progress was made for the NCMBS population, with an average of 37% gain from cycle 0 to 9 over all five traits. The trait where most progress was made was early yield, with an average of 63% gain from cycle 0 to 9 over the three populations.

Increased fruit yield in slicing cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) has been difficult to achieve since yield is quantitatively inherited with low heritability. From 1981 to 1993, four slicing cucumber populations differing in their genetic diversity (wide, medium, elite, and `Beit Alpha') were advanced through six to ten cycles of modified half-sib recurrent selection. The objectives of this research were to determine 1) the fruit yield and yield component means; 2) the correlations between yield components, between yield traits, and between components and yield; and 3) the change in means and correlations with selection for improved yield of four slicing cucumber populations. In 1994 and 1995, four families were randomly selected from three cycles (early, intermediate, and late) from each population and self-pollinated. Thirty plants from each S₁ family were evaluated in 3.1-m plots in Spring and Summer 1995 and 1996 at the Horticultural Crops Research Station in Clinton, N.C. Plants were harvested and data were collected on number of branches per plant and nodes per branch, proportion of pistillate nodes, fruit set and shape, and total, early, and marketable yield. When averaged over all populations, seasons, and years, fruit yield and quality increased with selection while yield components remained unchanged with selection. Fruit yield and components differed between populations, seasons, and years. Most correlations between yield components and between yield components and fruit yield were weak, and strong correlations varied between populations, seasons, and yield components. Indirect selection of proportion of pistillate nodes has potential for improving yield for certain population-season combinations. Selection weakened many strong correlations between yield components and between yield and components. Changes in correlations often did not correspond with changes in trait means. Based on this research, selection for yield components would not be advantageous for improving fruit yield in all slicing cucumber populations. Additional yield components, yield component heritability, and better component selection methods need to be determined before component selection can be used to improve fruit yield.

Recurrent selection has been used as a breeding method to improve traits having low heritability such as fruit yield, earliness, and fruit shape. The objective of this study was to measure the progress of recurrent selection in four slicing cucumber populations in terms of hybrid performance when crossed with a common tester. The four populations, North Carolina wide-base slicer (NCWBS), medium-base slicer (NCMBS), elite slicer 1 (NCES1), and Beit Alpha 1 (NCBA1) populations, which differed in their genetic diversity and mean performance, were developed using modified intrapopulation half-sib recurrent selection to improve fruit yield and quality. Eleven S₀ families were taken randomly from each of three selection cycles (early, intermediate, and advanced) from each population. Those families were self-pollinated to form S₁ families, and the S₁ families were crossed to `Poinsett 76', a popular slicing cucumber cultivar. The experiment was a splitplot treatment arrangement in a randomized complete-block design with 22 replications per population, with the four populations as whole plots and the three cycles as subplots. When 10% of fruit were oversized (>60 mm in diameter), plants were sprayed with paraquat to defoliate them for once-over harvest. Plots were evaluated for total, early, and marketable yield and fruit shape. Recurrent selection for improved fruit yield and shape per se resulted in improved hybrid performance of the NCWBS and NCBA1 populations for fruit yield and shape rating when tested in the selected or nonselected environment. The NCWBS population had the largest gain (21%) in hybrid performance averaged over all traits. In addition, early yield was improved an average of 18% from early to late cycles for each population. Even though the fruit yield and shape rating of `Dasher II' was greater than the hybrid performance of each population mean for the same traits, several F₁ families within each population exceeded the fruit yield of `Dasher II'.

The U.S. National Plant Germplasm System is one of the world's largest national genebank networks focusing on preserving the genetic diversity of plants by acquiring, preserving, evaluating, documenting, and distributing crop-related germplasm to researchers worldwide. Maintaining viable germplasm collections is essential to world food security but comes at a cost. Redundancy within the collection can incur needless expense and occurs as a result of donations of similar material under different names from different donors. Alternatively, similarly named accessions from different donors can actually be genetically distinct. We evaluated 35 short-day onion (Allium cepa) accessions using microsatellite and targeted region amplified polymorphic (TRAP) molecular markers to compare newly acquired germplasm with existing accessions in the collection to determine differences and redundancies and to compare the use of each marker type in distinguishing the onion accessions. Both marker types distinguished differences and found similarities, but the results did not always agree. TRAP markers found one of the Italian Torpedo entries to be different, whereas the 10 microsatellite loci analyzed found no differences. In contrast, microsatellite analysis found all three Red Grano entries to be different, whereas TRAP analysis distinguished only one accession. The eight White Grano entries were separated into four groups by microsatellite markers and five groups by the TRAP markers. Discriminating among closely related accessions using molecular markers can require a large number of random marker loci, especially when differences may be limited to a single trait. TRAP markers were more efficient, uncovering ≈10 random polymorphic loci per primer pair, whereas microsatellite markers each uncovered differences at a single locus.