Trends in hybrid cucumber development

Cucumber which belongs to the family Cucurbitaceae, is an important vegetable crop with regard to production value. Its immature fruits are mainly consumed as salad, for making pickles, preparation of cosmetic items, soap and cream. Due to their high-water content, they have refreshing properties. Breeders have vigorously pursued improvements in terms of yield, disease resistance, fruit quality and other economically important traits. This crop exhibits high degree of cross-pollination, wide range of genetic variability in vegetative and fruit characters. A number of studies has been done in relation to genetic improvement, resistance for biotic, abiotic stresses, mutation breeding and on biotechnological aspects. In this background, this review deals with the breeding achievements in cucumber and a special emphasis has been laid on the exploitation of genetic resources for the development hybrids with desirable traits.