Re: Powdery Mildew resistance.
- To: pumpkins@mallorn.com
- Subject: Re: Powdery Mildew resistance.
- From: Z* B* L* <z*@cornell.edu>
- Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1998 07:42:37 -0400 (EDT)
>
>How do you breed in powdery mildew resistance?
Good question. You do what is called a backcross. Most Giant pumpkins are
homozygous so you can cross it with a plant that is of the same genus and
species that has the resistance in a homozygous recessive trait. After
that cross, you take the seeds grow them up and cross them back with the
original giant pumpkin parent. This gives you the backcross. This allows
you to put one desirable trait into an already good genetic background
without screwing everything else up.
Do you have a strain of
>normal sized pumpkins with the resistance to breed giants with?
Normal pumpkins are Cucurbita pepo and wont cross with Giant pumpkins so i
wont use that, but i do believe there is a pumpkin on campus that will be
released that has powdery mildew resistance.
Do you
>know how inbred giant pumkins are? Pumpkins are natural outcrossers. You
>dont have to inbreed them to make a cross. But you do to make a hybrid.
Is it possible to examine the DNA
>of some giant pumkins to see how similar they are? ( Not to sequence
>them, just to see how much variation there is )
Yes, you can. You have to extract the DNA from the seeds and then cut it
with Restriction enzymes, run a gel, examine the bands that form and look
for variation. i dont know of anyone that does that with the giants and I
have never done it myself, but I am hoping to
>
>On a related note is anyone trying to breed Giant Pumpkins for
>something other than weight? NOt that I know of.
I hope this helps, Zach
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
