Conversion in Vitro of Cucumis Metuliferus and C. Metuliferus X C. Anguria Embryos

Molecular Evolution of the Internal Transcribed Spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) and Phylogenetic Relationships among Species of the Family Cucurbitaceae

“…C. metuliferus is clearly integrated into the Melo subgenus, although sequence differences are high compared to C. melo and to the other African species. A unique position of C. metuliferus is therefore indicated, although hybridization is possible with C. anguria and C. melo (Norton and Granberry, 1980;Fassuliotis and Nelson, 1986). However, C. metuliferus could be a link between the anguria group and C. melo.…”

Interspecific hybrids of Cucumis metuliferus × C. anguria obtained through embryo culture and somatic embryogenesis

“…Embryo development in these putative hybrid fruit varied from early heart to almost mature stages . Unlike embryos from selfed fruit, which develop to the mature stage within 15 days after pollination (Fassuliotis & Nelson, 1986), hybrid embryo development was unpredictable ; the stage of development did not seem to be related to days after pollination . Heart-shaped and rabbit-ear stage embryos were recovered even in fruit 99 days after pollination .…”

“…Nomenclature of the developmental stages of the embryos is based on recent descriptions (Fig. IA .) by Fassuliotis & Nelson (1986) .…”

“…Viable seed was not produced in these crosses, but embryos in various stages of arrested development were recovered through seed dissection . Fassuliotis & Nelson (1986) obtained three flatstemmed and chlorophyll-deficient plants from hybrid embryos of C. metuliferus x C. anguria cultured on MS medium supplemented with 10µM indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and 5 µM benzylaminopurine (BAP) . These plants died after three months in soil without producing any flowers .…”