Bottlegourd Breeding

Bottle gourd is an edible cucurbit with an ancient pan-tropical distribution. Main breeding objectives of bottle gourd are the high yielding varieties. The production of hybrid is easier in bottle gourd as it is monoecious and this sex form facilitates hybrid seed production rather easily. The identification of the plant cultivars purely based on morphological and reproductive characters is not reliable because morphological characters are influenced by environmental factors and stress. Biochemical markers have been extensively used for characterization of species and cultivars. In recent past, attempts have been made with considerable amount of success, to exploit phenomenon of heterosis in bottle gourd. In continuation of these attempts, therefore, the present book entitled ¿Bottle Gourd Breeding was prepared.To provides an overview of hybrid development and seed protein electrophoresis in bottle gourd with emphasis on Indian perspectives. We sincerely hope that this publication will be immense value to the cucurbit breeders, scientists, students and policy makers and will serve as a launching pad to herald new initiatives in the area of research in bottle gourd.