Phenotypic relationships among oil, protein, fatty acid composition and seed size traits in Cucurbita pepo

• Published in: Scientia horticulturae 2018-03, Vol.233, p.47-53
• Main Authors: Meru, Geoffrey, Fu, Yuqing, Leyva, Dayana, Sarnoski, Paul, Yagiz, Yavuz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: agroecology; breeding; Cucurbita pepo; cultivars; fatty acid composition; healthy diet; Linoleic acid; lipid content; markets; Oleic acid; Palmitic acid; phenotype; phenotypic variation; Pumpkin; pumpkins; Seed length; seed oils; seed size; Seed weight; Stearic acid; United States; vegetable oil
• ISSN: 0304-4238; 1879-1018
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scienta.2018.01.030

•There is wide variation in oil, protein and fatty composition within C. pepo.•Seed oil and seed protein are negatively correlated.•Seed size is positively correlated with seed oil but negatively correlated with seed protein.•‘Naked’ seed accessions are higher in oil and greater in seed size than hulled accessions. Pumpkin seed (Cucurbita pepo L.) is high in oil, protein and total unsaturated fatty acids (TUFA), and provides an important source of nutrition and income globally. Use of pumpkin seed in the snacking and vegetable oil industry in the U.S. is expected to rise as the market for healthy foods increases. Currently, most of the pumpkin seed consumed in the U.S. is imported, and there is need to breed high-yielding and nutritious cultivars that are locally adapted to various agro-ecological growing zones in the country. In the current study, phenotypic variation of key seed nutrition traits among 35C. pepo accessions of different seed phenotypes (hulled, semi-hulled, thin layer and ‘naked’) was determined with the primary goal of identifying the best parental material for breeding as well as elucidating phenotypic relationships among the traits. Seed oil percentage ranged from 29.33% to 48.41% and was significantly (P