International Journal of Horticulture 2015, Vol.5, No.12, 1
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Figure 1 Correlation between leaf area and fruit length (a), fruit weight and fruit length (b), leaf area and ascorbic acid content (c),
fruit length and ascorbic acid content (d), fruit firmness and S.S.C. (e)
the genotypes and patterns of the genetic diversity could
help determine future breeding strategies and facilitate
the introgression of diverse germplasm into the
current commercial summer squash genetic base.
Genetic variation in traditional landraces is the crucial
genetic pool for plant breeding. Evaluation of the
landraces in terms of phenotypic behavior and genetic
variability needs to be performed before they are used
in breeding programs to develop new cultivars that are
more productive and of greater nutritional value. The
identification and use of landraces of diverse genetic
background is a critical issue for successful breeding
programs through the selection of suitable parents.
Many studies on molecular level have been carried out
using different molecular markers such as, RAPD
(Tsivelikas et al., 2009), AFLP (Ferriol et al., 2003),
SSR (Barzegar et al., 2013), ISSR and SRAP (Inan et
al., 2012) to study genetic diversity within and among
several species of Cucurbita. The majority of previous
studies used commercial cultivars. This study provide
detailed morphological, chemical and molecular
characterization of a germplasm collection of
Cucurbita pepo
L. made up of diverse set of plant
introduction accessions, commercial cultivars and
landraces, which is expected to increase the genetic
basis of squash. There is no information about the
