Genetic analysis of the total flavonoids in cucumber.

Six-generations of the hybridization combination,F1,F2,backcrosses B1 and B2 and their parents P1 and P2,were made with two cucumber varieties,Southern China types Ma7,Northern China types M6.Inheritance of total flavonoids contents measured with spectrophotometer was studied through joint analysis of multiple generations.The frequency of total flavonoids contents in B1,B2 and F2 populations displayed one asymmetry peak distribution or multimodal distribution,indicating that the trait was quantitative in nature and controlled by major gene plus polygene.The results of joint segregation analysis suggested that total flavonoids contents fitted the pattern of additive-dominance-epitasis major gene plus additive-dominance-epitasis polygene(E-0 model).The major gene heritability was 2.12%~65.89% and polygene heritability was 0%~46.72%.In B2 and F2 generations,the major gene heredity rate was higher than the polygene heredity rate,the effects of environment variance on the phenotype variance had the certain proportion,i.e.,environment could play the major role for the inheritance of total flavonoids contents which the trait could be selected in the high generation selection.