Production of Cucurbita Interspecific Hybrids Through Cross Pollination and Embryo Rescue Technique

Interspecific hybridization is an important method to widen variations and to develop novel cultivars. Interspecific cross-pollination was carried out among three species of Cucurbita (C. moschata, C. ficifolia and C. martinezii) as male parents with ten cultivars of C. pepo as female parents. Only four cultivars of C. pepo (Eskandarani cv., Queen F , Jedida F and MHTC77 F ) were successful in producing interspecific hybrids 1 1 1 with C. moschata. Traditional sexual hybridization technique was unsuccessful in producing hybrids between C. ficifolia and C. pepo as well as C. martinezii and C. pepo. However, among the ten cultivars of C. pepo, only Queen F with C. ficifolia and MHTC77 F with C. martinezii were able to give fertile set fruits but failed to 1 1 produce seeds. Therefore, hybridity was accomplished when embryo rescue technique was employed. The immature embryos of C. ficifolia × C. pepo (Queen F ) and C. martinezii × C. pepo (MHTC77 F ) recorded 1 1 regeneration efficiency of 40% and 15%, respectively.