A bush-type plant was selected from tropical pumpkin 'cga' (Cucurbita moschata Duchesne) in order to study the vine development in C. moschata. In this study, a novel gene encoding NADH dehydrogenase was isolated from the vine line (cgaV) of C. moschata, that was not expressed in the near isogenic bush line (cgaBu). This gene, designated as CmV1 (C. moschata vine 1), was 545 bp in length and was composed of a 477 bp open reading frame, which had 99% nucleotide similarity to the chloroplast ndhJ gene for NADH dehydrogenase subunit J from Brassica oleracea. The deduced amino acid sequence of CmV1 had 99% similarity to NADH dehydrogenase subunit J from Arabidopsis and had 98% similarity to NADH dehydrogenase subunit from Barbarea verna. Analysis of the basic characteristics of the CmV1 protein revealed that it has one Respiratory chain NADH dehydrogenase 30 kD subunit signature, three N-myristoylation sites, one Casein kinase II phosphorylation site, and one Protein kinase C phosphorylation site. Reverse transcriptase-PCR analysis showed that CmV1 was expressed at a high level in the internodes and hypocotyls and was expressed stronger in elongating internodes than in fully expanded internodes. In conclusion, results obtained in the present study suggest that CmV1 gene might play important roles in vine elongation of tropical pumpkin.