Inheritance of some fruit characters in muskmelon

The fruit shape in muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) was classified as flat, round or oblong on the basis of shape index, and inheritance of these shapes was found to be complicated. Stripes on the rind of the fruit were governed by a single recessive gene st and their inheritance was independent of the nature of the rind whether netted or smooth.For netting on the fruit rind 2 genes were found. N gene controlled netting, its allele n smoothness. S gene suppressed netting when present in homozygous condition. N was epistatic over S and so was n over s. In the absence of N, SS caused smoothness and Ss caused netting. The smooth parents ‘Lucknow Safeda’, ‘Sl. 445’ and ‘Durgapura Madhu’ were found to be different from ‘Persiiski-5’ with respect to genes for smoothness.Inheritance of flesh pigments in green × white crosses showed that green flesh was conditioned by a recessive gene. However, in orange × green, green × orange and orange × white, flesh colour inheritance was complex.A possibility of maternal inheritance of pigments and an interaction between nuclear and extra-nuclear genes was suggested. Probably different genes were controlling chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments through separate biochemical pathways.