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Belgium

How are ya doing?

I have a question that I have been thinking about and asked about in the chat last night, but was interested in other's opinions. Is the female gene in a pumpkin dominate or recessive, or is it equal to the male? I think male is dominate, but that is just a guess. So what are your opinions. They can be guesses, but some evidence would be great.

Thanks,
Jake Byrd

9/20/2004 4:44:22 PM

Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

Jake,
Are you talking about genes influencing, color, shape, size, wall thickness, etc.? Or just genes in general?
I'm interested to hear if certain expressions of genes are are more prominant from one side or the other. Or is it generally thought that both sides give equal influence?

Doug

9/20/2004 7:48:19 PM

Appalachian Mtns.

I may be wrong here but I think the maternal genetics lead the way most of the time.

9/20/2004 8:31:14 PM

When a cross is made, 50% of the genetic material is donated by both the male and the female. The dominance you speak of actually refers to the states, or physical manifestation, that the gene can assume. In most cases, both of the parents can donate the same genes. Some genes however, can only be supplied by the mother, others only by the father. The dominance level, be it dominant, recessive, or several combinations thereof, is not gender specific however. I have never seen anything documenting the identification of any gene in the AG species. If anyone would know otherwise, it would most likely be Howard Dill.

9/20/2004 10:27:13 PM

Md/ Usa

AG are both m and f. the produce more male flowers then female but that has nothing gender. both male and female
have equal chance of being dominate but it really does not work that way with all gene traits.

9/20/2004 11:24:39 PM

Minnesota(dw447@fastmail.fm)

I'm interested if anyone has noticed if color, shape, or other traits seem to be affected more by the male or female side. Those with a lot of experience in making crosses, or those who've grown many different A.G. seeds may be best to answer this. Do you notice any trend?
Also a good thing to look at would be how a cross and reverse cross differ in pumpkin offspring.

Doug

9/21/2004 8:09:48 PM

That State Up North

There is equal contribution from both male and female parant to the chromosomal makeup of the progeny.

Nic Welty

9/24/2004 3:50:08 PM

Belgium

What I meant was specifics, like wall thicknes and other stuff like that. Like what Doug asked. Sorry for the confusion.

Jake Byrd

9/24/2004 4:03:11 PM

The dominant state of a gene is not dependant upon whether it comes from the female or the male. What matters is the genetic makeup of each parent. In an extremely simplified example, let's say we have a gene that controls color. Let's also say the male is homozygous dominant (pure) for
this gene and the female is heterozygous (hybrid). All the offspring would be of the same color as the male. If the roles were reversed, all the offpring would be the same
color as the female. If both parents were hybrid for this trait, 75% of the offspring would assume the color of the dominant state. The gender of the parent is of no consequence.

9/24/2004 4:52:18 PM

For us to be able to predict characteristics of progeny, you need to be dealing with identified genes and alleles. I don't know if this level of identification exists for the cucurbita maximus species. I don't know if Howard Dill was able to do this. Ask him. If not, contact breeders from places like Rupp, Harris Moran, or Abbot and Cobb and see if they have such information.

9/24/2004 5:12:16 PM

Carrollton, Ga.

wow

9/24/2004 6:25:59 PM

Wichita, KS

AG,

How would one go about identifying genes and alleles? Is this a loboratory study, or something that can be done by any of us out in the back 40?

9/24/2004 7:52:40 PM

There is an excellent book entitled 'Breed Your Own Vegetables' by Carol Deppe that does a nice job explaining practical plant breeding in a very understandable way. You can get it in Amazon.com for about $20. There really are not a lot squash genes identified and breeders generally just rely on good breeding techniques and principles. There's also a text called 'Squash Breeding' by Whitaker and Robinson that deals with things on a much more technical level.

9/24/2004 8:07:34 PM

Wichita, KS

Ok. They're on my christmas list. Since I probably won't get them from somebody else (my family tends to think my pumkin "thing" is strange), I'll likely get them for myself before then. Thanks!

9/24/2004 9:46:03 PM