Wild cucumber
Jan 22, 2026
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1 min read
Wild cucumber relatives offer a rich and largely untapped source of genetic diversity for innovating cucumber breeding. As the wild progenitor of cultivated cucumber, Cucumis hardwickii harbors valuable traits for stress tolerance, disease resistance, and developmental flexibility that were diminished during domestication. Harnessing these traits through modern breeding and biotechnological approaches can accelerate the development of resilient, high-performing cucumber cultivars for future agriculture.
Authors
Plant developmental biology & genome engineering
I work on controlling plant developmental programs using light, hormones, and genome engineering, with a focus on high-value crops such as cucumber and strawberry. My research aims to make regeneration-dependent technologies—such as gene editing and controlled-environment propagation— reliable across elite cultivars.