INHERITANCE OF BITTERNESS IN CUCUMBER

Three cucumber inbred lines with different types of bitterness: bitter in both foliage and fruit (BiBiBtBt), bitterfree in both foliage and fruit (bibibtbt), and bitter in foliage only (BiBibtbt,) were used as materials to examine the segregation ratios of the F₁, F₂, and BC₁ progeny. The results showed that the genes controlling foliage bitterness, Bi and bi, act independently of those controlling fruit bitterness, Bt and bt, and that bi is epistatically recessive to Bt. Fruits are also bitter when Bi and bi are heterozygous, even in the absence of Bt, although the extent of bitterness is less than that caused by Bt, and the proportion of bitter fruit is lower.