Responses to three cycles of modified mass selection for resistance to yellow leaf curl in a cucumber population

Abstract

Population improvement of cucumber is one approach for increasing resistance to yellow leaf curl caused by Begomovirus. The objective of this study was to evaluate the response to three cycles of modified mass selection in this cucumber population. In the first experiment, four populations were evaluated for the disease resistance scores. The trial was laid out in a completely randomized design with three replications. In the second experiment, yields were evaluated using a randomized complete block design with four replications at Choncharean Farm of Chiatai Co., Ltd. from August to October 2013. The results showed that disease resistance increased as indicated by the disease score decreasing from 2.79 (M0) to 2.12 (M3), with -0.25 average rate of gain per cycle. This results of study revealed that the modified mass selection scheme can increase disease resistance to yellow leaf curl in cucumber populations, and this improvement can be used as parental lines to produce inbred lines for new hybrid varieties of cucumber.