| Bottle gourd, an important vegetable crop in the Cucumis genus of Cucurbitaceae family, has strong adaptability and long growing period, which are beneficial for yield. The bottle gourd is appreciate by consumers because of its soft, smooth and sweet fruit. In this review, the progress of breeding research of bottle gourd in the past 60 years was summarized. This was an important period for the development of Guangdong bottle gourd varieties from farm species to F1 hybrids. The progresses of bottle gourd breeding in Guangdong were delayed in the early breeding age. In the 1960s, the resources of bottle gourd were first investigated by Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences. After that, 16 collected bottle gourd germplasm resources, about 6.6% of the total national bottle gourd resources were transferred to the National Germplasm Repository in the mid-1990s, which was in the beginning stage of breeding research of bottle gourd. After 2000, conventional varieties, such as Meifeng No. 1, Meilv No. 1 and Yuefeng No. 1 and the first hybrid varieties, such as Zaopu No. 2, Yongle, Qingxiu, Short bottle gourd and Linong hybrid series bottle gourd were successively bred in Guangdong, indicating a new development era is coming in the bottle gourd breeding in Guangdong. In the future, researches on bottle gourd breeding will be carried out such us the collection and evaluation of germplasm resources, the breeding of new varieties with high quality and multiple resistance, cold-tolerant（heat-resistant）varieties, and varieties suitable for protected areas growth. Furthermore, combined with modern biotechnology, breeding researches will be conducted to improve the breeding
efficiency of new bottle gourd varieties in Guangdong with a view to promoting the breeding of bottle gourd to a new level. |
