FOREWORD

We, the Organizing Committee of Cucurbitaceae 2000, the 7^th EUCARPIA Meeting on Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding, welcome you to Israel. We will be doing our best to make Cucurbitaceae 2000 a most informative and enjoyable experience for all participants.

Cucurbitaceae 2000 is part of a series of cucurbit genetics and breeding conferences, begun in Europe in the 1970s and in the U.S.A. in the 1980s. These conferences have been held on a regular basis, in even-numbered years and alternately on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, beginning with Poland in 1992, then Texas, Spain, California, and now, Israel. We have been privileged to organize this conference here in Israel during this very special year, 2000.

As of this writing, the following institutions and companies have furnished financial and material support for Cucurbitaceae 2000: Agricultural Research Organization (A.R.O., Israel), Agrogene, Bar-Ilan University, Bio-Oz, Hazera' Quality Seeds, Mediterranean Seeds, and Zera'im Gedera. We also acknowledge with pleasure International Travel & Congresses Ltd., particularly to Ms. Miri Finkelman, Manager, and Ms. Meera Jacobson, for their encouragement, creativity, and professional organization of Cucurbitaceae 2000.

We hope that you will find Cucurbitaceae 2000 to be a most memorable occasion.

6 January 2000

Nurit Katzir
Menahem Edelstein
Ron Cohen
Zvi Karchi
Organizing Committee


Dear Colleagues:

This book contains full-length contributed papers of all lectures and posters presented at Cucurbitaceae 2000, the 7^th EUCARPIA Meeting on Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding. The papers cover a wide range of topics and have been arranged according to subject matter. The date of issue of this book, 19 March 2000, is the first day of the conference. This follows the tradition begun at Cucurbits Toward 2000, the 6^th EUCARPIA Meeting on Cucurbit Genetics and Breeding, held in Spain in 1996, and continued through Cucurbitaceae '98, held in California, U.S.A., in 1998.

We edited the original contributed manuscripts and have attempted to contact all authors for their final approval of the edited forms of their contributed manuscripts. If nonetheless we have made some errors that have been overlooked, we apologize.

The format was considered by us carefully before the distribution of the 2^nd Announcement and Call for Papers. We selected this format because it is both compact and easily comprehended. We thank all contributing authors for their cooperation in preparing their manuscripts according to the format. We also acknowledge with pleasure the attention and cooperation of the staff of ISHS, particularly of Executive Director Mr. Josef Van Assche, who has helped us produce what we believe is a fine book of proceedings.

6 January 2000

Nurit Katzir
Harry S. Paris
Editors