Patent ID: 8669413

Claim:
A method of breeding a Cucurbita pepo plant resistant to Melon Severe Mosaic Virus (MeSMV), wherein the method comprises the steps of: (i) providing a first cucurbit plant, said first cucurbit plant being resistant to MeSMV, wherein the first cucurbit plant is a Cucurbita moschata plant or a Cucurbita maxima plant; (ii) crossing the cucurbit plant provided in step (i) with a second cucurbit plant to produce progeny plants, wherein the second cucurbit plant is a Cucurbita pepo plant; (iii) when the resistance is due to dominant or partially dominant locus/loci, selecting one or more progeny plants that are resistant to MeSMV from the progeny of step (ii); when the resistance is due to recessive locus/loci, backcrossing the progeny of step (ii) to the second cucurbit plant to create a backcrossed progeny, or selfing the progeny of step (ii) to create a selfed progeny, and selecting one or more progeny plants that are resistant to MeSMV from the backcrossed progeny or the selfed progeny; (iv) backcrossing the selected progeny plants of step (iii) or selfed offspring thereof with the second cucurbit plant of step (ii) to produce backcross progeny plants; (v) when the resistance is due to dominant or partially dominant locus/loci, selecting for backcross progeny plants that are resistant to MeSMV from the backcross progeny plants of step (iv); when the resistance is due to recessive locus/loci, backcrossing the selected, backcrossed progeny of step (iv) to the second cucurbit plant to create a further backcrossed progeny, or selfing the backcrossed progeny of step (iv) to create a further selfed progeny, and selecting one or more progeny plants that are resistant to MeSMV from the backcrossed progeny or the selfed progeny; and (vi) repeating steps (iv) and (v) three or more times in succession to produce selected fourth or higher backcross progeny plants that are resistant to MeSMV.