Author(s)

Sixto Alberto Marquez^1,2,3, John Jifon^2,3,4*, Kevin Michael Crosby^1,2,3*, Carlos Augusto Avila^2,3,4, Amir Mohamed Hussein Ibrahim^2,5

¹Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas, United States.
²Vegetable & Fruit Improvement Center, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas, United States.
³USDA National Center of Excellence for Melon at The Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center of Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas, United States.
⁴Texas A & M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco, Texas, United States.
⁵Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Texas A & M University, Texas, United States.

Vine decline disease (VDD) constitutes a menace to melons worldwide. Especially, the one caused by the fungus Monosporascus cannonballus. Thus, resistant plant material must be released to help growers. Hence, our goal was to develop resistant plant material to VDD. More than 600 melon accessions are expected to be tested for disease resistance in M. cannonballus infested soil in Weslaco, Texas, USA, to identify resistance to VDD, and other important traits. So far, at most 7 lines were found to be resistant to VDD and some of them were used to develop elite, muskmelon inbred lines by pedigree breeding following single or double backcrosses. These elite parents were crossed to each other to develop the hybrids M3 and M4. They were also tested in the same infested field in Weslaco. The hybrids were grown using standard commercial practices followed by growers and when their fruits were ready, their roots were sampled as well as scored for disease severity to estimate high and mid-parent heterosis Our results indicate the existence of heterosis regarding resistance to VDD. Thus, resistant plant material can be developed and selection for resistance can be accomplished.

Melons, Vine Decline Disease, Monosporascus cannonballus, Resistance, Heterosis

Marquez, S. , Jifon, J. , Crosby, K. , Avila, C. and Ibrahim, A. (2023) Heterosis of Vine Decline Disease Resistance Caused by the Fungus Monosporascus cannonballus in Melons (Cucumis melo L). Agricultural Sciences, 14, 629-635. doi: 10.4236/as.2023.145042.