Phenotypic relationships among oil, protein, fatty acid composition and seed size traits in Cucurbita pepo

Pumpkin seed (Cucurbita pepo L.) is high in oil, protein and total unsaturated fatty acids (TUFA), and provides an important source of nutrition and income globally. Use of pumpkin seed in the snacking and vegetable oil industry in the U.S. is expected to rise as the market for healthy foods increases. Currently, most of the pumpkin seed consumed in the U.S. is imported, and there is need to breed high-yielding and nutritious cultivars that are locally adapted to various agro-ecological growing zones in the country. In the current study, phenotypic variation of key seed nutrition traits among 35C. pepo accessions of different seed phenotypes (hulled, semi-hulled, thin layer and ‘naked’) was determined with the primary goal of identifying the best parental material for breeding as well as elucidating phenotypic relationships among the traits. Seed oil percentage ranged from 29.33% to 48.41% and was significantly (P