Mejoramiento de caracteres de importancia agronómica en melón criollo (Cucumis melo L.) variedad dudaim mediante selección y recombinación.

The cultivation of the criollo pocket melon (Cucumis melo L.) has received little attention in agronomic research, despite its productive potential and its remarkable phenotypic diversity. Its fruits show phenological, morphological and organoleptic differences that offer an opportunity for genetic improvement of the Criollo variety, which is necessary because it has lower yields than other imported varieties and hybrids. In order to evaluate the potential of a selected population in the improvement of agronomically important traits, recombinant individuals from a selected population (Ps) were evaluated against individuals from the original population (Po) of the Dudaim variety, under a randomized complete block design with two treatments and three replications in two different locations in the canton of Palenque, Province of Los Ríos, Ecuador. According to statistical comparisons, the selected population showed significantly higher mean values than the original population (p=0,05) in 7 of the 9 fruit traits evaluated, showing high genetic variability and high heritability in a broad sense for traits related to fruit quality. The studies allow us to conclude that there is a high potential to achieve genetic gains by selection, especially for fruit weight, total soluble solids and fruit yield traits. The studies allow us to conclude that there is a high potential to achieve genetic gains by selection, especially for fruit weight, total soluble solids and yield per hectare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]